


Searching For Sanctuary

by robindrake93



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, An Abundance Of Country Music, Anxiety, Asexual Percy Jackson, Car Accidents, Denial of Feelings, Depression, Feels, Fluff, Gay Luke Castellan, Healing, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Light Angst, Luke Castellan Has Scars, Luke Castellan Redemption, M/M, Men Crying, Mentions Of American Gods, Mild Sexual Content, Past Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Road Trips, Scents & Smells, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, Singing, Slow Burn, Therapy, Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:01:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 112,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25963270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robindrake93/pseuds/robindrake93
Summary: Percy Jackson ended the Second Giant War and got out of Tartarus a week ago. He's finally home safe home at Camp Half-Blood but there's a surprise waiting for him there: his old enemy, Luke Castellan, is back from the dead and he's in Percy's cabin. Percy expects a fight but Luke is looking to move past the mistakes that cost him his life.When the divine have interfered in every aspect of his whole life and Fate has a capital F, Percy knows that there's a reason Luke is here now.Despite their rocky history, Percy decides to take a chance on Luke and turn his back on the harrowing life he's had for the past five years. Together, Percy and Luke go on the run - or retire, as they like to call it - from being heroes and pawns of the gods. This is their chance at redemption and to have a normal life. It won't be easy - the gods and their fellow demigods won't let them just slip away without a fight - but Percy and Luke are determined. They'll do whatever it takes to earn their freedom and their peace.
Relationships: Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson
Comments: 178
Kudos: 437





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Percy Jackson.
> 
> If you don't like the font color, click "Hide Creators' Style" at the top and it'll revert to black.
> 
> Do not reupload/repost my fics.

### “I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday: I don't expect I shall return. in fact, I don't mean to, and I have made all arrangements.... I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something.” ― J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings

* * *

The war was finally over. 

Gaea was put back to sleep, Octavian was dead, Leo was...lost. They weren’t sure what had happened to him but they couldn’t find a body anywhere. This wasn’t the first time that had happened to Percy. That thought was accompanied by a small jab of pain in his heart; a spot that would always stay sore. Leo might be dead...he might not be. Time would tell. 

Victory celebrations were well under way, an intermingling of the Greek and Roman camps. There were fireworks enchanted to show off the fantastical battles of the Second Giant War, lighting up the sky with colorful displays that lasted whole minutes rather than seconds. The nymphs and naiads had come from the forest and lake with silver platters overflowing with rich foods. Extra seating arrangements had been placed around the dining pavilion to make room for additional campers. A strawberry drink was being passed around, something that smelled like it was well into the fermentation process. Dionysus and Chiron both pointedly ignored the drinks, either because they decided that the campers had earned it or because it wasn’t actually alcoholic. 

The noise scraped against Percy’s nerves like claws down his spine. The sweet scent of strawberries, combined with the mass of bodies made him dizzy. Percy just wanted to rest. He wanted to faceplant on his blue silk sheets in the Poseidon cabin and sleep for a week. “I need to sleep,” Percy said into Annabeth’s ear. He kissed her cheek and pulled away without waiting for a response. His eyes were glued to the ground, to the dirt packed hard by generations of footsteps following this exact path. He didn’t want to look at the battles playing out in the sky above; he’d lived through them and didn’t see a need to relive that anytime soon. 

Percy pushed open the door of the Poseidon cabin, stepped inside, and closed it. The walls weren’t soundproof yet the noise from outside was dimmed. Some of the tension eased from Percy’s shoulders. He toed off his sneakers. It felt so good to be able to crack his toes. For a few seconds he stood with his hand against the wall for support and just cracked his toes against the floor. _Crack, crack, crack, crack._ So satisfying. It really was the small things that made life good; a lesson that Percy had learned the hard way. Percy pulled off his shirt and hissed as pain flared in his ribs. They were sore, possibly broken. He couldn’t be sure because he measured pain differently since being back from Tartarus. In any case, there had been other people who needed medical attention more than Percy and he didn’t want to ruin their good time by bothering anyone to track down nectar or ambrosia. Percy unbuttoned his jeans. They were the jeans that he’d worn during the last battle against Gaea; he hadn’t yet had a chance to change. 

“Hey, cuz.”

The voice was deep, sweet as honey, and held just a hint of sorrow. Two simple words yet Percy didn’t need to hear anymore to know who had spoken them. It was a voice that Percy heard in his head every time he uncapped Riptide, every time he swung a sword. The familiarity of it was a knife in Percy’s chest. The voice came from Percy’s side of the room, from where he slept. There was no way. It couldn’t be him. Percy turned. The name got caught in his throat. 

Luke reclined on Percy’s bed, back against the wall and hands shoved into the pockets of the hoodie he wore. His hair was closer to white than to blond. Lichtenberg figures spread across his face and disappeared into the hoodie. Percy would bet that they traveled all the way down his arms and to his hands. “You should see your face.” 

Slowly, Percy rebuttoned his jeans. It looked like he wasn’t going to be able to get out of them just yet. It looked like his peace was gone the moment it had begun. “Is that my hoodie?” Percy’s hands shook violently but his voice was deceptively steady. 

“The jeans are yours too,” Luke agreed with a shrug. “I didn’t think you’d mind.” Obviously, since he was wearing them. That was Luke, though, always asking for forgiveness rather than permission. Luke plucked at the hoodie, drawing Percy’s attention to the fact that it fit him perfectly. “You’ve grown.”

“That happens when you grow up,” Percy said stupidly. He stared at Luke, or this thing that looked like Luke. Could it really be him? Luke had been dead for less than a year. He was going to be reborn. Percy walked over to the bed like a puppet on the strings. Gone was his smooth battle grace. He slid a knee between Luke’s legs to lean on and cupped Luke’s face with both trembling hands. It looked like the same face, plus the new scars from when Luke got electrocuted. “Am I dead?”

“No.” Luke held perfectly still, looking up into Percy’s eyes. The blue of his eyes was so vibrant that it made the blue of Percy’s hoodie look gray. 

“Dying?” Percy guessed, because that would be just like him. To hallucinate while dying on a battlefield. Maybe they hadn’t won the war after all. Maybe Luke was here as the herald of a third war. 

Luke shook his head. “Not dying.”

“Dreaming, then?” That had to be it. Percy was so tired that he fell asleep in bed and now he was having a weird dream. When Percy dreamed of Luke, it was never like this. It was the moment of betrayal, a sting as sharp as the one given to him by the pit scorpion. Or the moment of Luke’s agonizing death. Or sometimes it was even not of Luke himself that Percy dreamed of, but of being trapped in May Castellan’s house while she called him Luke and burnt cookies. 

Luke’s expression did something funny and then his tears hit Percy’s palms. Luke brought his hands up to place over Percy’s, touch gentle and hesitant. “You aren’t dreaming. What happened, Percy?”

It was sad to think of fighting Kronos as the good old days. It was sad to think that Percy had ever thought Luke was evil when he now held the same views as Luke had and when Percy had seen true evil personified. So much had happened between one year and the next. How could Percy even tell Luke everything when telling Nico had just made the boy push him away? But Nico has been pushing Percy away since Bianca’s death, while Luke never once pushed Percy away. That blind acceptance was something that Percy could always count on. On impulse, Percy threw his arms around Luke’s neck and sobbed into his shoulder. His ribs screamed with pain but Percy ignored it.

Luke smelled faintly of the cold dampness of the Underground. Mostly he smelled like Percy himself, like the salt of the ocean. Underneath all of that was the scent of warm, male skin that made Percy think of home and safety. 

Luke stiffened with momentary surprise, then his arms came up to wrap around Percy. His hands rested over the small of Percy’s back, somehow finding the exact spot that used to be Percy’s only tie to the mortal world. “Tell me what happened,” Luke pleaded, voice wet with emotion. His tears fell against Percy’s cheek. 

If last year, anyone had told Percy that they would be reunited and crying over it, Percy would have laughed at the ridiculousness of such an image. But here they were, together with tears spilling down their cheeks. Once Percy caught his breath enough to speak, he said, “I’m so tired, Luke.” Crying made his ribs hurt even worse, every breath made a sharp pain flare up. Despite this, Percy dragged Luke down so that they were laying side by side.

Luke put up no resistance. “You look older,” he said gently. He touched the gray spot in Percy’s hair. It was no longer just a streak, and had swallowed up most of the black. Annabeth’s hair was back to its usual golden perfection, of course. Luke’s fingertips lightly traced the shape of Percy’s face, over wrinkles that hadn’t been there before. His gaze dropped from Percy’s face and he lowered his hand to brush his knuckles over Percy’s ribs in a ghost of a touch. “You’re hurt.”

“I lost my invincibility when I crossed a river into the Roman demigod Camp and I got out of Tartarus a week ago,” Percy explained. He closed his eyelids. His pillow felt so good, so cool and soft against his skin. He hadn’t slept since Tartarus and that hadn’t been a good sleep. “I spent seventeen days there.”

Luke made a crooning noise in the back of his throat. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. That’s really rough.” He sounded sincere, voice heavy with grief. Luke knew all about Tartarus and what lurked there. 

Percy huffed out a laugh. “You’re such a jackass,” he said without heat or accusation. His eyelids were too heavy to open. It had been a long five years and Percy was ready to rest. He welcomed the darkness of sleep.

  
  
  


Yelling woke Percy from his sleep. The tone of it wasn’t in celebration or fun; this was angry yelling. He reached out a hand for Luke but was met with an empty bed. The sheets were still warm. Percy forced himself onto his feet, reached into his pocket for Riptide. His pen sword was still there. He heaved himself off the bed and stumbled out of his cabin door. 

Luke stood six feet away with a tall glass of amber nectar in his hand. He was desperately trying not to spill it, eyebrows knit with concentration as he danced away from the hulking shape of Clarisse.

A group of young adults and teenagers surrounded Luke, weapons drawn and the sharp ends pointed towards Luke. They were a mixture of Greek and Roman. 

Clarisse was the head of the group, shouting in Luke’s face and trying to wrap her bare hands around his neck. “YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! HOW ARE YOU HERE?” She made a lunge for Luke. 

Luke dodged. His space was limited. Someone shoved Luke back towards Clarisse. The glass was dangerously close to spilling. 

Clarisse got a fistful of hoodie. “YOU BETTER ANSWER ME, CASTELLAN!” She kept yelling without giving Luke a chance to reply, “WHY ARE YOU BACK BUT SILENA ISN’T?”

“Silena didn’t want to come back,” Luke replied calmly. He looked quite unperturbed by Clarisse screaming at him. Then again, Luke was used to having people yell at him. “She’s enjoying Elysium with Beckendorf and the others.” Luke gave a small shrug, as though he didn’t understand the appeal of Elysium. As someone who wanted rebirth and the Isles of the Blest, he probably didn’t.  


Percy shoved through the circle and forced himself between Clarisse and Luke. He pointed Riptide at Clarisse’s throat. “You, shut up,” Percy said to Clarisse. He turned to Luke. “I can’t sleep for ten minutes without you sneaking out?”  


Luke looked mildly offended by that, eyebrows drawing together and eyes going sadder than usual. “I was just getting you nectar. I planned to be back before you woke up.”  


Percy wrinkled his nose in annoyance.  


“YOU KNEW HE WAS HERE?!” Clarisse shouted.  


“Your ribs are broken, Percy.” Luke’s voice was quiet, especially compared to the furious girl on Percy’s other side.  


Percy took the glass from Luke and downed it in a few long swallows. His ribs healed immediately, everything snapping back into place and bruises fading. “Thank you, Luke.” He looked at Clarisse. “Yes, I knew he was here. I found out an hour ago.”  


“Why is he here?” Clarisse growled. “He’s dead! You said he was dead!”  


“He was,” Percy agreed tiredly. Less than an hour of sleep did not put him in a good mood. Not when Percy had been hoping to sleep for as long as physically possible. He didn’t want to deal with this. “Do we have to do this now?” Percy took Luke’s hand and made to walk away.  


Clarisse grabbed Luke’s other hand and yanked him back. “He’s not going anywhere.” Her voice was a low snarl. “I don’t know how he got out of the Underworld, but I’m sending him back.”  


Percy let go of Luke’s hand, dropped the empty glass, and punched Clarisse in the face. He felt her nose crunch beneath his knuckles and pulled back before he shoved the broken cartilage into her brain. He followed that up with a swift punch to the gut that had Clarisse doubled over gasping. Percy remembered being in Tartarus and something inside him shattering. After the shattering, he had become stronger. Now he had the strength to leap twenty feet over a chasm while carrying the equivalent of his own body weight.  


Blood rushed from Clarisse’s nose and spilled onto the dirt. She fixed Percy with a look of absolute hatred. “So you’re taking his side?!” She spat.  


“I just got back from fighting in my _second_ war and from a _very_ unpleasant trip to Tartarus. All I want is to get some fucking rest. I don’t _care_ why Luke is back from the dead. While he’s here, Luke is under my protection. Anyone who picks a fight with him is challenging me.” Percy glared at the campers surrounding them, daring any one of them to try something. “I would not recommend fucking with me right now.”  


A few faces stood out from the crowd. Reyna, staring at Percy like she was never going to let him into Camp Jupiter again. Jason, expression slightly bewildered behind his glasses. Nico, with narrowed eyes and his body placed in front of Hazel’s. Annabeth was missing from the crowd, had likely retired to her own cabin for some much needed rest. Otherwise, no one seemed to be able to make eye contact with Percy and several of them even stepped back.  


Percy held out his hand to Luke.  


Luke took it. His skin was cool to the touch, his palm sweaty. They were the only signs that the angry crowd had made him nervous.  


Together they walked towards the Poseidon cabin.  


The campers parted around them. No one said a word until the door was closed behind Percy and Luke. The second the door closed, they began to speak. Their chatter sounded as indecipherable to Percy as the chittering of the dead.  


Percy leaned against the door and looked at his legs, too tired to lift his head. His skin prickled and suddenly Percy was just _done_ with seeing these jeans and feeling them on his skin. He unbuttoned the jeans and slid them - and his underwear - down. He shimmied out of them and left them on the floor. Then he walked past Luke. Percy’s hands went cold at the very thought of walking past Luke without a weapon on his person.  


Luke watched him, keeping his eyes above Percy’s waist. He stepped aside, putting space between them. “I was trying to be stealthy. Being alive is still kind of weird.”  


Percy got a clean pair of underwear and slid them on. Now that he wasn’t naked, he felt a little better. A shower would be even nicer but Percy didn’t want to leave his cabin just now. He needed to watch and protect Luke, and he desperately needed to sleep. “How _did_ you get here?”  


Luke sat down on the edge of Percy’s bed. “I was in Elysium, waiting to be reborn, when the news came. They said that the Doors were open and we could leave. No need to suffer punishment, no need to wait to be reborn.”  


“So you left?” Percy asked. He wasn’t overly surprised but it made him wonder how many of the dead had taken the opportunity to live again. A headache brewed at the base of his skull. That would be someone else’s problem. He crawled into bed and laid down on his side.  


Luke nodded. “I came out in Epirus, Greece.” Which meant that the dead had flocked to Tartarus to get to the Doors and someone had pushed the elevator button to get them back to the mortal world. Did Luke suffer in Tartarus like Percy had? Did he know the risk of going up the elevator? “I spent a while there, getting used to being alive again, avoiding monsters, and getting money for fare back to America.”  


Percy studied Luke’s body language and decided that Luke looked really tired. Was it like this for Hazel when she came back to the land of the living? Or was it because Luke has chosen to get back on the merry-go-round of life, knowing that the gods likely still had it out for him? “Did you get here by plane or ship?”  


Luke looked down at his hands like they belonged to someone else. Clearly he still wasn’t used to being alive. “Ship.”  


Annoyance flashed through Percy. Not exactly aimed at Luke, but at the ocean for not telling him that Luke had crossed. “How did you get my clothes?”  


A flash of guilt crossed Luke’s features. It was rare to see him looking guilty for anything. He looked Percy in the eye. “My dad said he sent you on a Quest and he stole them from your cabin while you were gone.”  


“Of course he did. That jackass.” Percy hadn’t even noticed that someone had been in his things. Was Luke wearing his underwear too? It made sense that Hermes hadn’t left a trace while stealing from Percy. Although why he couldn’t just give Luke new clothes was beyond Percy. “Why my clothes?” Percy yawned.  


Luke stood up and walked around the bed. He pulled the covers out from beneath Percy. “Because he was trying to hide my scent from the other gods. I guess it worked but it made more monsters come after me.” Luke arranges the covers overtop of Percy and tucked him in snugly. “I’ll tell you everything else you want to know later. For now, you need rest.” After Percy was tucked in, Luke retreated to the other side of the room and sat on the opposite bed. 

  
  
  


It wasn’t a full week like Percy had hoped for but he did manage to sleep for twelve hours before waking again. This time it was because of a series of hard knocks at his door, as though someone was trying to break it down.  


He knew it was Annabeth pounding on his door. Percy pushed himself up and looked to Luke.  


Luke hadn’t much moved in the past twelve hours so far as Percy could tell. He still leaned against the opposite wall. The only difference was now Luke had one leg tucked underneath him and the other stretched out. His nostrils flared as he took in the scent of the demigod on the other side of the door. His apprehensive expression told Percy that he also knew who it was.  


“Just stay there,” Percy mouthed to Luke. He stood and closed his eyes against the initial blood rush.  


When Percy opened his eyes again, Luke mouthed back, “no prob.” His hands went up to the strings of the hoodie and he began to twist them, casting nervous looks at the door.  


Percy stretched. His spine and shoulder blades cracked satisfactorily. He shuffled to the door and opened it.  


Annabeth punched Percy in the gut. She brushed past him, knocking her shoulder against his, and bringing the scent of mountain laurel with her. “Where is he?” Annabeth didn’t wait for a reply. She stalked over to Luke, fist pulled back to hit him, and then stopped.  


Percy rubbed his stomach and followed her, unsure if he was going to have to break up a fight between them.  


Annabeth’s gray eyes were wide, shock written across her face. “Y-your face...what happened?”  


Percy thought that she was being very rude to Luke. “He was electrocuted while we were fighting. Don’t you remember?”  


“Shut up, seaweed brain,” Annabeth snapped. She reached out to touch Luke’s face, then stopped, seemed to think better of it, and dropped her hand. “When did you come through the Doors of Death?”  


Luke looked between them. He had knotted the hoodie strings into bows. It was cute and Percy wondered where he’d learned to do that. “A few months ago.”  


Annabeth’s shoulders tightened. Her eyes were hard as steel. “And you didn’t tell anyone?” The implications were clear; she was angry that Luke hadn’t told _her_ of his return.  


Luke remained silent. His expression said it all though; he knew he wasn’t welcome in demigod circles.  


“Don’t you have a sixth sense for when Luke isn’t dead?” Percy asked, an edge to his tone that he couldn’t quite dull. Annabeth was probably going to punch him for that comment.  


She elbowed him in the ribs instead. “Perseus Jackson, I swear to gods -“ She cut herself off because when you swore to the gods, they held you to it.  


Percy was fascinated to find that it left a mark. Invincibility had really skewed his perception of how mortal his body was. Tartarus, shockingly, did not help matters.  


Luke was giving them a look like they were both crazy but wisely kept his mouth shut.  


When Annabeth turned to Luke again, all of the anger had melted from her body. “I don’t know why Percy is keeping you cooped up in here. Come and see the Camp! I’ve made so many changes!” Annabeth took his hand.  


Luke glanced at Percy as he stood up. “You’re coming too, right, Percy?”  


Percy swallowed down the immediate jealousy and anger that flared up at the sight of Annabeth holding Luke’s hand. “Yeah,” he said. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”  


For the first time, Annabeth seemed to actually see Percy. “Why are you naked?”  


“I’m not naked,” Percy said, gesturing to his underwear. He felt a hot flush spread from his face to his chest.  


Annabeth put a hand up, apparently to block the sight. “Put some clothes on, seaweed brain.”  


Percy accidentally caught Luke’s eye as he turned to find clean clothes. Luke’s expression was pitying. Percy went to his trunk and pulled out a clean pair of cargo shorts. He tugged them on, glad to be wearing clean clothes yet still craving a shower. Then he pulled on a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that he’d ripped the sleeves off of at some point.  


Annabeth had let go of Luke’s hand to cross her arms and tap her foot impatiently.  


Instead of bothering with sneakers, Percy shoved his feet into some sandals. He patted his pocket, and felt Riptide appear in it. “After you, Princess.”  


Annabeth glared at Percy, then turned heel and led the way. She talked about the damages they’d suffered as she led them to the cluster of tiny houses.  


Luke fell into step beside Percy. “You look like me,” he said quietly. “Before I moved out of Camp.”  


That was a nice way of saying it. Percy looked down at himself. He was wearing almost the exact same thing Luke used to wear. Then he looked at Luke. “And you look like me when I first got here.”  


They walked past the Hermes cabin. Luke paused, frowning at it. “I thought you rebuilt,” Luke said to Annabeth.  


Annabeth was a few steps ahead of them. She looked between Luke and the Hermes cabin. “I did!” She said cheerily. “It’s exactly the same as before.”  


“I can see that,” Luke said. He sounded unhappy.  


The Hermes cabin had been rebuilt but you wouldn’t know that by how it looked. Percy hadn’t noticed because after five years, he was used to it, but now he saw it through fresh eyes. The cabin was deceptively simple to begin with, made of logs with a plain shingle pattern for the roof. There were wooden shutters over the windows and a porch that ran the length of the front wall. The only decoration was the metal caduceus hanging over the door. Normally, that would be fine enough; this _was_ a summer camp more or less; and only the Hermes kids lived in it now. But the shingles on the roof already needed to be replaced, the paint on the crookedly hung front door needed to be reapplied, and at least one of the shutters was actually on the ground. There were several nails sticking out from the porch boards and the porch railing had broken on one side. It looked like the kind of abandoned shack you’d find in the middle of the woods except with less grass growing through the floorboards.  


The worst part was comparing the Hermes cabin with its neighbors. Some of the other cabins were made of marble. Others, abalone, obsidian, gold, or silver. Even the few other cabins that were made of wood, had smooth walls that were painted nicely and neat trims. They were decorated with plants, with metalworks, with carvings. There were only two cabins that were thought of as anything other than pretty and despite the occupants odd decorating choices, neither of them were falling apart. Those cabins were the Hephaestus cabin; made of solid brick with smoke stacks coming from the roof, soot stains on the walls, and decorated with metal gears and statuary; and the Ares cabin, decorated with barbed wire, a real decapitated boar’s head, and given a bad red paint job.  


Shame burned through Percy. He knew exactly what Luke was seeing, exactly where Annabeth had gone wrong while rebuilding the Hermes cabin. Luke had died for change, yet Annabeth had kept the cabin exactly the same as it was before. Why was it that Percy hadn’t noticed before this? He looked down at his feet so that he didn’t have to meet Luke’s questioning, accusing gaze.  


Annabeth either wasn’t aware of her mistake or was ignoring it. Either was likely with her. “Well, let’s go see the new cabins!” She led them along the row of cabins, explaining the design choices she made for the cabins of the minor gods. Then she stopped by the tiny houses and threw out her arms. “And these are the modular cabins!”  


Luke cocked his head to the side. He looked down at the wheels and cocked his head the other way. “It’s on wheels.”  


“ _They_ are on wheels,” Annabeth corrected.  


No one had ever asked Percy his opinion of the modular cabins and frankly, he didn’t give it much thought. The kids were out of the Hermes cabin and that was what he’d focused on. He was a little jealous about the private bathrooms but he was slowly working on convincing Annabeth that _all_ of the cabins needed their own bathrooms. At least, he had been before the second war. Now, as Percy stood beside Luke and looked at the tiny houses, he could see every single flaw in the design.  


“They…” Luke repeated. He looked between two of them, at the different colored paint that different campers had decided on. One tiny house was a lovely pink, the other was a violent neon orange and they couldn’t even see the two in the back. He looked at Annabeth. “Who do they belong to?”  


Annabeth paused for a moment. “That group belongs to the Nike children, Laurel and Holly.” She launched into her explanation of how everything was customizable from the paint to the shape of the furniture. All of the furniture was made to be collapsible so they could use the living space as a gym or dining room. There was storage beneath the stairs and the benches doubled as beds. The loft was up a narrow set of stairs and had two twin beds but could be used as a gaming room or whatever the campers wanted. There was even a bathroom, complete with a shower. “The girls are using these two but we can go around to the other two and you can see the inside.”  


The trio walked around to the other side, where there were two more doors. The cabin on the right was jet black and the one on the left was blinding white. Annabeth opened the door of the white cabin and gestured for Luke to go inside.  


Luke walked up the steps and into the tiny house.  


Percy followed Luke before Annabeth could get up the stairs. He wanted to see Luke’s face because he just knew that Luke wouldn’t like this.  


Annabeth threw Percy an annoyed look. She took up the rear.  


Luke drew his elbows in tight to his body, shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. He made a slow circle around the space. With the three of them there, it felt a little tight. He moved towards one of the benches, stopped because Percy was in the way. “Excuse me,” he muttered.  


“Sorry.” Percy stepped aside and bumped into Annabeth. “Sorry,” Percy said again to Annabeth.  


Luke sat down on the bench. Then he laid down on it. His head touched one wall, the bottoms of his feet touched the other. Luke was only about three inches taller than Percy. He declined to comment, instead getting up and lifting the bench’s seat to look underneath. Luke carefully set it down again. Luke made his way slowly through the tiny house, looking at and testing everything. He changed the colors of the walls to a pale sea green, he changed the style of furniture to Scandinavian. He opened the closet beneath the stairs and closed it. Then Luke went into the bathroom. Water began to run only to be turned off a few seconds later. Luke went up the stairs, laid in one bed, peered down at them from the loft, and disappeared from view again.  


Percy and Annabeth exchanged looks. The longer that Luke explored and didn’t speak, the more anxious Annabeth’s expression became. “Do you think he hates it?” Annabeth whispered.  


“No,” Percy lied. He was almost positive that Luke could hear them because Percy could hear every rustle of Luke’s clothing, every scuff of his sneakers.  


Finally, Luke made his way back downstairs. His brow was furrowed in concentration as he took the narrow steps one by one. His verdict was: “It’s better than the Hermes cabin.”  


That seemed to be both more and less praise than Annabeth was expecting. She made a face like she was trying to smile but couldn’t quite manage it. “Thanks,” she said.  


They went back outside. The sun was beginning to drift towards the western part of the sky and turned the clouds gold. All around them was the fresh scents of pine forest, strawberries, and the ever-burning hearth fire.  


Annabeth faced Percy. “We’re having a counselor’s meeting tonight at the Big House.” This was said with a nervous glance at Luke.  


Percy had been expecting it ever since he first saw Luke on his bed. “I hope it’s after dinner,” he said.  


“Right after dinner. We’ll miss the sing-along.” Annabeth brushed a blonde curl from her face. “You need to take a shower before dinner. You reek.”  


Percy was tempted to ask her if that’s why she hadn’t kissed him yet but he felt weird about fighting in front of Luke. Instead he went the safer route and said, “It would be so much easier to shower if I had a private bathroom in my cabin.”  


Annabeth sighed. “Just go get cleaned up, Percy. I’ve got to inform everyone of the meeting.” She cast one more look at Luke and then took off at a run for the forest.  


Luke and Percy stood together beside the cabin modules, looking after Annabeth as she ran away from both of them. Luke broke the silence, “Why did she build these instead of one big cabin? They’re the same size as the other cabins except with a lot more walls and less actual beds.”  


Percy shrugged. “I wasn’t involved in the design or building process. Annabeth just disappeared into the forest for a while and when she came back out, she’d built four of these. I guess Chiron approved of them, but the way I hear it, he thought that she was building a _model_ cabin and the real thing would be bigger.” He turned and began to walk back towards his cabin to get another fresh pair of clothes and his toiletries.  


Luke followed, catching up easily with his long legs, and then matching Percy’s stride. He ignored the looks that the other campers gave him. “The bathrooms are nice,” he admitted.  


“I keep trying to get her to build bathrooms in all of the cabins but she won’t.” Percy opened his cabin door and got his things together. He made quick work of it. It didn’t occur to him that it was strange when Luke followed him back out into the evening. Leaving Luke alone felt wrong for multiple reasons and Percy was just glad that Luke wasn’t going to put up a fight about it.  


“Was it a space issue?” Luke guessed. “She built cabins for Hades and a few of the other minor Olympians.” He hadn’t gathered any new clothes but he had picked his tri-dagger up from the bed and stuck it in his hoodie pocket.  


Percy shrugged. He made the familiar walk to the cinderblock building that served as the communal bathrooms for the campers who weren’t blessed with private ones. There was a boys and a girls side but they could hear each other through the grates at the top of the wall that divided them. It looked just like every locker room that Percy had ever been in and no matter how long he spent at Camp Half-Blood, the bathrooms weren’t something that he ever missed. He set his things down and began stripping.  


Luke found a dry patch of counter and sat cross-legged on it. He distinctly didn’t look at Percy, face turned away from him. “If she added bathrooms to the existing cabins, then they could tear down this dump and use the space to build proper cabins for those other four minors.”  


With his clothes in a heap on the floor, Percy walked across the cold tiles with his bare feet. “I support that plan,” he said. He stepped beneath a random showerhead and turned the knob. Cold water sprayed onto his face and Percy had to fight the instinct to will himself dry. The tiny houses had hot water all the time, which was totally unfair. For a few long moments, Percy just stood beneath the water with his eyes closed and breathed. Who knew that there would be a time in his life when he hated the water? He licked the cold water off his lips to cool the memory of drinking fire.  


The camp store stocked fairly basic shampoo and conditioner in one scent: strawberry. Because they really needed to be bombarded with the scent of strawberries everywhere they went. The difference between this and store brands was that it smelled like jam while the store brands smelled artificial. Percy scrubbed shampoo through his hair. Then he rinsed it out and did the same with the conditioner. While he let that set, Percy scrubbed the rest of his body with - you guessed it - strawberry scented soap. Just because it smelled nice, didn’t mean that Percy particularly _wanted_ to smell like strawberries...but it felt really good to be clean again. He rinsed off one last time and turned the water off.  


Luke was still looking away from Percy when he turned around. He’d managed to tie another bow into each of Percy’s hoodie strings. It was a really cute look but Percy had trouble thinking of Luke as cute. Luke was handsome, he was cool; heck, he was even hot. The shape of his face could be defined as regal, if you wanted to get fancy, or fae if you wanted to be whimsical. Even with the sharp scar on his cheek and the fern-like scars that spread across his face, Luke could easily be considered attractive or beautiful. None of those adjectives were _cute._  


Cute was for children or fluffy animals or girls who wore pastel cupcake dresses.  


Percy willed himself dry as he stepped up to the counter where he’d set his clean clothes. It was technically early - still a few minutes before dinner - yet Percy wanted to wear his pajamas. They were Camp pajamas, acquired from the Camp store, and were Heracles themed because Heracles was always a high seller. Percy didn’t like the guy but he was too tired to care about wearing his merch. He pulled on fresh underwear first, then his pajama pants. He shrugged into the short-sleeved shirt and buttoned it in the front. The pajamas he only ever wore at Camp, because at school he slept in his underwear and at home he slept in his day clothes. “You can look,” Percy said when he was dressed.  


Luke looked. He stretched his neck. “How do you want to do dinner?” It was said casually enough but Percy saw a hint of nervousness in Luke’s expression. Rightfully so, he wasn’t keen on dying again.  


“I think you should sit at my table. But if you don’t want to, I can bring you something back.” Percy ran a brush through his hair. It was shaggier than usual and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a hair cut. He didn’t look too hard at his hair, shot through with more gray than black. It made him feel old, beaten down and weathered like a ship left in port for decades. The brush didn’t do much except make his hair frizzy. Percy sighed and gave up.  


“I’ll eat with you,” Luke decided.  


They stopped by Percy’s cabin again to drop off Percy’s things. Percy put a hand on Luke’s shoulder while they were still in private. “If you hurt _anyone_ , I’ll personally send you back to the Underworld.” He meaningfully dropped his eyes to the hoodie pocket where Luke’s wicked knife was hidden.  


Luke’s lips quirked in a smile. It made the lightning scars on his face ripple. “I’ll behave, Percy.”  


Percy sighed. “I’m holding you to that.”  


They left Percy’s cabin and walked up the trail towards the dining pavilion. The Romans had left while Percy slept and so all of the extra seating was put back into storage. They weren’t the only campers heading that way, however everyone else gave them a wide berth. No one was subtle about their shit talking of Luke. It was only when Percy was questioned that their voices dropped to a whisper.  


Percy ignored it. People had been whispering about him since his very first day of Camp, for one reason or another. He couldn’t bring himself to care.  


When they reached the dining pavilion, they got plates and began fixing them. Serving was dictated by cabin number; which meant that Percy always went first. The buffet was lovely as always. There were platters of creamy yellow and white cheeses; grapes on the vine so red and fat they looked like they would burst; lean brown meat without a hint of fat but a little pink still in the middle; and loaves of golden bread that were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, fresh out of the oven and still steaming. It was good food, healthy food. Percy wanted a cheeseburger.  


They fixed their plates and scraped some food into the fire. “Hermes.” Luke scraped more food into the fire and added, “Dionysus.” 

Percy said his father’s name and then added Dionysus because it was probably a good idea not to rock the boat too much. It was bad enough that Luke was back from the dead and at Camp; now he was about to break Camp rules.

They sat across from each other at the Poseidon table and had just begun to eat when there was a _clip clop_ of hooves. 

Percy sighed loud enough that the campers from other tables turned to look at him. 

“Good evening, Percy,” Chiron said as he came to stand at the head of their table. His brown beard was trimmed almost down to skin and his gray-streaked hair was tied back in a ponytail. Lately, Chiron had been looking older and tireder. “It’s a surprise to see you here, Luke.”

“They didn’t predict that?” Luke asked, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. He popped a grape into his mouth. 

“They don’t know everything that will happen,” Chiron said gently. When he looked at Luke, his eyes were full of pain. 

Luke exhaled through his nose. It might have been a snort of contempt except his heart didn’t seem to be in it. 

Chiron continued as though Luke hadn’t interrupted, “I was hoping that you would come to the Big House with Percy after dinner, Luke. Mr. D would like to speak with you.”

“Sure he does,” Percy said. His voice was low and hard with anger. More likely, Mr. D wanted to send Luke back to the Underworld. Maybe that was the real reason for the meeting; it would take all of the counselors to keep Percy occupied if Mr. D was going to kill Luke. He glared at the head table. 

Mr. D sat twirling an unopened Diet Coke can. He looked back at Percy, expression unreadable but distinctly unhappy. That was how Mr. D usually looked so it was difficult to tell if he was planning something nefarious with Luke. 

Beneath the table, Luke’s sneaker tapped Percy’s sandal. He left it there, his foot pressed against Percy’s foot. 

Though it rankled to lose the staring contest, Percy went back to his dinner. Not even the good food could distract him from worry over what would happen at the meeting. 

  
  
  


While the other campers gathered around the massive fire pit for s’mores and the sing-along, the counselors and Luke headed for the Big House. It was trusted that the kids could watch themselves for an hour and Argus would be there to keep his eyes on them. Just in case. 

Dionysus sat on the porch, cards laid out for a game of pinochle. He watched Percy and Luke walk up. “Castellan,” Dionysus said and crooked a finger at Luke. 

Luke shot Percy a look and then joined Dionysus at the card table. 

“Nice bows,” Dionysus said sarcastically. 

Luke didn’t reply. 

Percy felt a flash of irritation and then went into the Big House. The rec room near the back of the house was where they held meetings. There were more than twenty chairs squeezed around the ping pong table and everyone had to sit shoulder to shoulder. 

Percy took his spot next to Chiron, wedging himself onto a bar stool from the kitchen. His right shoulder brushed against Chiron’s white stallion side, his left shoulder brushed against Annabeth’s shoulder. Percy was suddenly glad that he’d showered before the meeting because he didn’t want to be That Guy; the one in the crowd who smelled bad and made it unpleasant for everyone else. 

Clarisse was the only ex-head counselor to attend the meeting along with the current head counselor of the Ares cabin. She had taken a couple weeks off of college to help her siblings and the camp get back on its feet. Compared to Clarisse, her younger brother Sherman didn’t look like much; though he was a formidable opponent with a nasty temper. Now she stood behind Sherman, a menacing shadow. 

Holly and Laurel shared a large chair that had been pulled from the living room. They pinched each other’s legs and bickered at each other. 

Nico sat on Will’s lap as though Will was a human throne. He looked strangely regal for being fourteen. The look was broken by the shy smile he flashed at Percy. Will had his arms wrapped around Nico’s waist and his chin rested on Nico’s shoulder. 

Nyssa and Piper sat next to each other. Nyssa was showing Piper something that she’d made and somehow managing to get grease all over the table and Piper’s shirt. Piper had an exasperated look on her face but Nyssa didn’t seem to notice. Nyssa was the current stand-in for Leo, as Leo still hadn’t been recovered. It looked like she might permanently become the counselor of the Hephaestus cabin.

Damien and Chiara sat close together in a way that looked like they were holding hands beneath the table, though their faces were turned in opposite directions. 

Butch and Paolo took turns dropping slips of paper into Clovis’ open mouth. Clovis sat between them, head back, somehow snoring through his open mouth. 

Miranda sat twirling her hair while she pretended to listen to Connor, who was urgently whispering under his breath beside her. Every so often, Miranda would nod but she seemed totally uninterested. 

Pollux sat quietly, staring at the table like he wasn’t really seeing it. Ever since his twin brother, Castor, died in battle, Pollux had been totally withdrawn. Castor’s death was two years ago but Pollux still grieved. 

Last was Lou Ellen, fidgeting with her magical Pig Ball but otherwise quiet on an improvised chair. The chair was a side table with a cushion thrown on to make sitting bearable. 

Once everyone was seated around the table, Chiron stomped his hoof three times to signal that the meeting was to begin. Everyone quieted down immediately. Faces turned toward Chiron. Once he had their attention, Chiron spoke, “We are here to discuss one matter and one matter only.” 

Percy had a sinking feeling in his gut. 

Chiron continued, “The matter at hand is whether we allow Luke Castellan to stay at Camp Half-Blood.”

Percy felt like the world just dropped out from beneath him. He stared at Chiron incredulously. If he was honest, he thought they were to discuss whether or not Luke was allowed to continue living; not whether or not he could stay at Camp. 

Judging by the grumbles of other campers, this came as a surprise to them too. 

Clarisse gripped the back of Sherman’s chair so hard that the wood splintered. “He shouldn’t even be allowed to stay alive! The entire war was his fault. He had his chance and his life is over.” 

Chiron’s tail swished in an annoyed sort of way. That was likely due to the furniture being broken. There was a reason that demigods didn’t usually hang out in the Big House. “Clarisse, Luke’s fate is not in our hands. The only matter that we need to discuss is whether or not not we allow Luke to stay at Camp.”

Will peered over Nico’s shoulder. He raised one hand to get everyone’s attention. “Could you elaborate on Luke’s fate and whose hands it’s in?” 

“I’d like to know too,” Annabeth said. Some of the old affection slipped into her voice. It was so weird how her voice did that whenever she was talking about Luke.

Percy kept his eyes on Chiron’s face. 

“Luke is speaking with Mr. D right now,” Chiron explained. “His life is currently in his own hands.” Trust Chiron to be super vague about what that meant. 

Percy clenched his fists in his lap. He _knew_ it. He knew that Mr. D was going to threaten Luke somehow. “I think we should let Luke stay. If he wants to. If he survives whatever Mr. D is doing to him.”

“HE’S A TRAITOR!” Clarisse roared. She broke off more of Sherman’s chair and chucked it at Percy’s head. 

Percy caught the splintered wood before it could impale Chiron’s side. He tossed it behind them where it wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Silena was a traitor too, Clarisse! Or did you just conveniently forget that she was spying on us for years, feeding information to Kronos? Did you forget that she’s got blood on her hands too? Demigods _died_ because of Silena’s spying but we let everyone think that she was a nothing but a hero.” 

“Travis was right,” Connor whispered. He wore a look of pain on his face that was mirrored around the table. He turned his eyes on Percy, the same blue as Luke’s eyes, the same blue as Hermes’ eyes. Did he notice the family resemblance? “Travis said that you said Silena died a hero.” 

Percy jerked his chin towards Clarisse. “ _She_ wanted Silena remembered as a hero and Silena was dead because she’d brought the Ares cabin to help fight the drakon so why not let her have a little glory?” He shrugged. The schematics of who was on whose side didn’t matter so much to Percy. He was too tired to care. 

Annabeth shifted so that she could look directly at Percy. “I’m glad that you’re on Luke’s side about this, but what changed your mind? You were always the one who said that Luke was irredeemably evil.” Coming from her mouth, the words sounded like a challenge. As though Percy needed to prove to her that this wasn’t an elaborate con he was running to get Luke kicked out of Camp permanently. 

“Because Luke was right,” Percy said. 

There was a ripple of surprise from the older demigods, from the ones who had been there. 

Annabeth looked like she’d been slapped. 

Miranda’s eyes were practically bugging out of her head. 

Connor had a look on his face like someone just dared him to eat a bug. “Luke was...not right. He betrayed everyone.” 

Percy stood up, slapped the table. He hit it so hard that the other end went up a couple of inches and there was a handprint left on the surface. “Luke was absolutely right. We’re nothing but pawns and that’s all that any of us will ever be and that’s all our children will ever be until the ichor runs so thin that not even the gods can use our legacies.” He thought of Frank, such a distant relative of Poseidon yet he still had incredible powers. Maybe they would never really escape the divine blood in their veins. Percy’s chest heaved, his body thrummed with anger. “I’ll admit that he went about it in the dumbest way possible and ultimately it was us demigods who suffered for it, but Luke was right and he died to stop Kronos. Luke’s debt has been paid.” 

Clarisse narrowed her eyes. “He died _one time_ and then went right to Elysium. That’s hardly paying his debt.” 

Percy met Clarisse’s eyes. “Luke spent his entire life paying for the mistake he would make by joining Kronos. I’ve _seen_ it, Clarisse. What happened to him? I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. That’s why I made the gods claim their kids. That’s why I made sure that the minor gods had thrones on Olympus. I traded immortality to make things better. Luke traded his life for it. So if Luke wants to stay at the only home he’s ever had, then I say we let him.” He realized he was still standing and sat down. 

Piper gave Percy a curious look. She placed her dagger on the table and ran her finger over the blade. “I don’t know Luke but I’ve heard of some of the things that happened in the Second Titan War. Are you sure that it’s safe to have him here? There are other forces that he could awaken to try and...tear down the gods.” 

“Piper has a point! I don’t want to be stabbed by this guy. Did you see his face? I mean…he looks like your classic bad guy,” Lou Ellen chimed in. She clutched her Pig Ball threateningly, as though she was considering turning all of them into pigs. 

“He swore he wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Percy said. 

“On the Styx?” Miranda asked. She twirled her hair between her fingers and Percy recognized that it meant she was anxious, not bored. Miranda had been there when Luke was at Camp. She knew him for those two years before he publicly defected. 

“I...didn’t think to make him,” Percy admitted. “If we vote he can stay, then I’ll make him do it as soon as the meeting is over.” He didn’t add _if Luke was still alive_ but he thought it went without saying. 

Beside him, Annabeth sighed. “What makes you think he’ll listen to you, seaweed brain?” 

Percy was surprised by her sudden swapping of sides. He blinked at her. “I mean, he was in _my_ cabin and he’s been really well behaved. I just don’t think he’s going to try something. I know he was dead and everything but maybe after being possessed for over a year and then killing himself, Luke learned his lesson.” Percy thought about Luke’s tears hot on his skin as they cried. He would never tell anyone about that, ever, for as long as he lived. “Going through a second war, and Tartarus, and meeting the Romans really put things into perspective for me. Luke isn’t even in the same category as most of the people we meet. And people can change. Look at Bob.” 

Annabeth looked annoyed at first but the longer Percy talked, the smoother her brow got until she was nodding along with what he was saying. 

“Uh, I’ve got a question,” Nico said. 

“Whose Bob?” Butch asked at the same time. 

“Bob is the Titan who used to be known as Lapetus. Percy wiped his memory with the Lethe. That’s not important.” Nico waved a hand as though shooing away a fly. He looked at Percy, black eyes piercing. “Why was Luke in _your_ cabin?” Nico asked. 

That little shit was going to get Percy beat up. Percy gave Nico his best Wolf Stare. “Why don’t you ask Luke that?” 

Nico’s eyes narrowed, his lips thinned. “Luke shouldn’t be alive, Percy, and I don’t think he should stay here.” He was jealous. Percy had seen the behavior often enough in Annabeth. Well, Percy didn’t need another person to be jealous over him. 

Clarisse threw up her hands. “Finally! Someone with some sense!”

“By that logic, Hazel shouldn’t be alive. Are you going to send her back to the Underworld too?” Percy challenged.

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed. Outside of the Seven - and Nico - no one even knew that Nico had taken Hazel from the Underworld while the Doors of Death were open. 

Annabeth touched the beads that hung around her neck. “I vote Luke stays.” 

“You would say that,” Conner mumbled. He slouched in his seat, looking annoyed and a little worried.

“Have something to say, Conner?” Percy asked in a tone that didn’t invite opposition.

“If he does stay - and that isn’t my vote! - then what are we going to do with him?” Connor asked. “I’m not letting him have the Hermes cabin.” 

The thought of Luke returning to his old cabin and his old position hadn’t even occurred to Percy. Now he saw that it was a reasonable thing for Connor to worry about. He’d just become the counselor of the Hermes cabin and they were still trying to work their way out from the stain Luke had left on them. “I think we can all agree that Luke doesn’t need his old jobs back. I’m still sword fighting instructor and Connor is still head counselor of the Hermes cabin.”

There were nods of agreement around the table. 

Connor looked a little more relaxed, but not by much. He sat up straighter. “I don’t want him in my cabin at all,” Connor said firmly. 

Percy waved a hand dismissively, though he hadn’t thought of that either. “He’ll sleep in my cabin.” He looked around the table. “I’ll make sure Luke behaves himself. No raising ancient deities, no hurting anyone, no taking over other people’s jobs.” 

Now there was an uneasy shuffling around the table. Everyone knew that you stuck to your own table and your own cabins. People didn’t just sleep in other demigod’s cabins if they weren’t siblings. Or, in the case of the Hermes cabin, a benevolent God. 

“But - ” Annabeth started. 

“Poseidon is the God of the Sea. I am the son of the sea God. The sea is nothing if not flexible. I’m sure that Poseidon won’t have a problem with me hosting Luke in his cabin. Particularly considering that the Hermes cabin once hosted me.” Percy sat back and crossed his arms. “Besides, we don’t know if Luke is staying or for how long.” 

“I’d be okay if he wanted to leave,” Chiara muttered. 

Clarisse towered over Sherman, eclipsing him with her shadow. “You think Luke is leaving? Has he said anything? What are his plans?” 

Luke hadn’t said much of anything, mostly because Percy had been asleep. Still, Percy couldn’t shake the feeling that Luke wasn’t at Camp Half-Blood to stay. He’d come for something, but once that was done, Luke would move on. Percy had no idea why Luke came back to Camp. Maybe he just needed a safe place to plan his next move. Percy shook his head. “I don’t know what his plans are. I can ask him but I doubt they’re nefarious.” 

“We could give him a trial period and then meet back to vote again once it’s over,” Damien spoke for the first time that night. When he realized that he’d drawn every eye to him, he slowly let go of Chiara’s hand from underneath the table. His face turned pink. “We don’t have to vote to let him stay forever. He could stay for a while and if it doesn’t work out, we can boot him.” 

“That’s actually a good idea,” Annabeth said. She nodded to herself. “How about a month?” 

“A week,” Clarisse growled back. 

“Three weeks,” Annabeth countered. 

“Two weeks and then we vote again,” Percy cut in. 

“Camp will be over by then and I’ll be back at school in a week. It should be a week,” Clarisse insisted. 

“You aren’t even a counselor, Clarisse,” Annabeth pointed out. “Everyone who isn’t a year rounder or a counselor can go home like normal. The counselors should stay an extra week. This will be a good chance to see how Luke does with the Camp full and with it mostly empty.” 

Clarisse’s jaw clenched but she didn’t argue. She looked away and gave a half shrug. 

Percy found himself more relieved than he thought he would be. 

Chiron took over for the first time since he began the meeting. “Everyone in favor of allowing Luke to do a two week probation period, raise your hand.” 

Percy, Annabeth, Miranda, Holly, Laurel, Nyssa, Butch, Paolo, Damien, and Chiara all voted yes. That was ten votes. Percy was suddenly immensely thankful that he had the minor demigods on his side because otherwise Luke would be booted out right this moment; provided that he was still alive. 

The other nine campers either sulked or openly glared at those who voted yes. But it meant that Luke was safe for the next two weeks. 

“You are making a mistake. Luke _will_ betray all of us.” Clarisse stormed out of the rec room with a face so red it was almost funny. 

Sherman hurried after her. He hadn’t said a word for the entire meeting. 

Butch and Paolo picked up Clovis to take him back to his cabin. Clovis didn’t wake and he didn’t notice that there was a ton of paper in his mouth. “Don’t worry,” Paolo said with a grin, “we’ll fish it back out before he chokes.” 

Pollux sulked after them, never lifting his chin. 

Holly and Laurel raced each other to the door, nearly bowling over poor Pollux. 

Lou Ellen stood up, still clutching her ball, then looked at Percy. “If you need to get him under control,” she hefted the Pig Ball. “You know who to come to.”

If she thought that Percy was going to say thank you to that offer, she had another thing coming. “Good night,” he said dismissively. Maybe she would get angry and turn him into a pig. It had to be better than being a demigod. 

The other demigods filed out with waves and calls of good night until it was just Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron left in the room. 

Annabeth stood up and stretched. She began to put the chairs back. “I don’t like the idea of Luke being in your cabin. Maybe someone else should stay with you.”

Percy could feel his patience crumbling like sand into pounding waves. He got through the meeting with a fairly rational head, if he did say so himself. But now there wasn’t anyone to impress and it was a normal feeling to want to strangle Annabeth. “So is it Luke that you don’t trust or is it that you think I’m helpless? If Luke tries something, and I don’t think he will, you think I can’t take care of myself?” 

Chiron chose that moment to pick up the arm chair and deliver it to the living room, thus making himself scarce. 

Annabeth frowned at Percy. “What’s your deal? You’ve been acting crazy since Luke showed up.” She put the end table and cushion back where they went. 

Percy wanted to ask her if it ever occurred to her, all the times that she’d called him crazy, that maybe he was a little crazy. But he didn’t because that would just egg her on. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry for being weird. I just never expected to see Luke again.” He picked up the pieces of broken chair, studied them for a moment, then put them in the trash. 

Annabeth ran her hand over the mark on the table Percy had made. She had that look on her face like she did in Tartarus whenever Percy did something that she hadn’t been expecting. “I get it. I wasn’t expecting to see him either. He’s...so different.” 

“Well, he died,” Percy pointed out. He picked up a bar stool to carry it back to the kitchen. 

Annabeth took the other bar stool and followed Percy out into the hallway. “Do you think that he blames me for his death?”

“Why would Luke blame you?”

They entered the bright kitchen. Hardly anything was ever actually cooked in this kitchen so it was more for decoration than anything. They put their bar stools down.

“Because it was my dagger that killed him.” 

“I’m the one who gave it to him,” Percy said. “It was my choice.” Objectively, Percy knew that it had been Fate with a capital F that made Luke kill himself. That didn’t mean Percy felt any less guilty for handing Luke the tool to do it. Once when he was young and naive, Percy had thought he wanted Luke dead. After Thalia kicked Luke off a cliff and Luke died as a result (everyone always told him that Luke survived the fall but Percy _still_ didn’t believe Luke could survive without divine intervention) Percy realized that not even Luke deserved to die. That it had been the hurt child and the jealous teenager inside him that thought they wanted Luke dead. Percy had outgrown both of those stages. Now he was just tired. 

“I don’t blame either of you,” Luke’s voice came from the entryway. He looked pale, which made the scars on his face stand out pinker than normal. Stray bits of hair near his forehead were damp with sweat. 

“What did Mr. D want?” Percy asked. He just barely resisted the urge to look Luke over and physically check that Luke was okay. 

Luke’s eyes slid to the side. “Just to talk and play a game of pinochle. Same thing he always wants.” There was a slight waver in Luke’s voice. 

“Is that all? Chiron made it sound...life threatening,” Annabeth said. She cocked her head as she studied him. 

Luke shrugged. “That’s all.” 

Holly’s voice suddenly shouted from the screen window in the kitchen. “Hey Annabeth, your cabin is still up! They’re gonna be eaten by harpies!” Then she squawked and laughed. Her footsteps retreated at a running pace. 

Annabeth cursed and ran past Luke to go round up the other Athena kids. They tended to get into mischief when they thought they could get away with it. 

Percy could taste Luke’s fear on his tongue. It was bitter and acrid. “We should be getting back to the cabin too.” He brushed past Luke, knocking their shoulders as he headed out the front door. Dionysus was no longer on the porch. 

Luke followed Percy back to the cabin. Once they were inside and the door had been closed, Luke took off his shoes. “I hate the gods,” he said very, very quietly. 

This wasn’t a shocking revelation. Percy sat on the edge of his bed and bent over to unbuckle his sandals. “What did he actually want with you?”

Luke’s swallow was audible. He climbed into bed and burrowed beneath the covers. “I told you. To talk and play pinochle.”

Percy narrowed his eyes. “Did he threaten you?” 

There was a long silence from Luke. Long enough that Percy got underneath his own blanket. They lay on their sides facing each other. Finally, Luke said, “I was playing for my life. If I lost, he was going to kill me.” 

Percy’s mouth went dry. That was just like Dionysus. Just like the gods to mess around with demigod lives like they didn’t even matter. Beneath the blankets, he curled his hands into fists. “Obviously you won.”

“Obviously,” Luke agreed. No wonder Luke had been scared. “How did the meeting go?”

Percy sighed. “About as well as you’d expect. No one really wants you here.” He paused. “Sorry, that was tactless.” 

The blanket shifted. It looked like Luke may have shrugged. “Not surprising. Are they kicking me out?”

“Not yet,” Percy said and was glad to be able to deliver some good news. “You’re on probation. We’ll vote again in two weeks to see if you get to stay the rest of the year.” 

Luke hummed. 

“Do you have a plan?” 

“Not really,” Luke admitted. He rolled onto his back and looked at the hippocampi figures on the ceiling. 

A long silence stretched between them. Percy felt the pull of sleep and thought about giving in to it. Sleep was better than consciousness and lately he hadn’t been having prophetic dreams. Just the usual nightmares. He thought that he would have nightmares until the day he died. Maybe he was just bad at handling trauma. “Why did you come back to Camp?” 

No reply. 

When Percy looked at Luke’s bunk, he saw that Luke was asleep. Well, they could talk later. Percy gave in to the lull of sleep. 

  
  
  


The last days of summer were beautiful. It wasn’t too hot or humid, just the perfect temperature for being outside. Cloudless blue skies reflected back in the smooth surface of canoe lake. A breeze rustled the leaves in the trees and made the grass bow. It carried away the oppressive scent of strawberries. 

Percy and Luke lounged in a canoe in the middle of the lake. They had pillows to sit on and pillows for their backs. They sat with their legs dangling over opposite sides of the canoe so that they could still face each other. Luke had rigged an umbrella to stand and provide some shade. Luke wore one of Percy’s shirts and his blue swim trunks and Percy wore an orange pair from the Camp store that he bought that morning. It seemed wrong for Luke to wear Camp clothes so he wore Percy’s clothes instead. Percy dipped the fingers of his left hand in the water and focused on making them spin in a slow, slow circle. He didn’t want to be near the edges of the lake where the water was shallow and the shore had other campers. 

They were avoiding the other campers. Well, Percy was avoiding the other campers and Luke followed him like a faithful puppy. So _they_ were avoiding the others. He knew that Luke’s resurrection brought up negative feelings all around the Camp. It was one thing to offer sanctuary to the demigods who were tricked or sold into the Titan army. It was another to extend that Luke, who was literally the face of the war.

“I missed the sun,” Luke said. Half his body was in the sun and the other half was covered by the umbrella’s shade. The umbrella was rainbow and it colored their skin like a kaleidoscope. 

“They don’t have, like, a fake sun in Elysium?” Percy asked. He had sunglasses on, head tipped back towards the sun. Relaxing felt nice but Percy had to keep reminding himself that it was okay to relax. The war was over. He was safe in the borders of Camp Half-Blood.  


“Nah,” Luke said. He reached into the cooler that sat between them and took out a can of Coke. Percy had been right about the lichtenberg figures curling down Luke’s arms to his hands. Luke popped the tab of his Coke.  


Just the sound of the carbonation made Percy thirsty and anxious. The last time that he’d shared a Coke with Luke, things hadn’t gone well afterwards. Still, Percy’s sweet tooth was one thing that hadn’t changed over the years; he reached to dig his own can out of the cooler. The ice felt nice, a pleasant coolness against his warm skin. He got his Coca-Cola then a few ice cubes. The Coke he set between his thighs, the ice he rubbed over his throat and chest. It melted quickly, left behind water that cooled in the breeze. Perfection. “That’s kind of a bummer.”  


“I think you need to get to the Isles of the Blest if you want sunlight,” Luke confided. He watched Percy overtop his shades then got some ice cubes from the cooler and rubbed them over his exposed neck and arms. They didn’t melt quite as quickly as Percy’s had.  


Percy opened his Coke and took a sip. He immediately felt better. That was the power of caffeine.  


Luke drank some Coke and got more ice to run over his thighs. Luke tipped his head so that his sunglasses fell down to the tip of his nose. “Hey, Percy?”  


Percy met Luke’s eye. “Yeah?”  


“I’m sorry for trying to kill you those two times and for abusing your trust in me.”  


Percy bit his lip and looked away. That hurt twelve-year-old inside of him threatened tears. The realization of the flying shoes was bad enough but that had ultimately been pretty impersonal and Percy hadn’t come close to death because of the shoes. But the pit scorpion was different. It was _personal_. Luke had summoned it with the sole purpose of killing Percy and then he had left Percy to die alone.  


“You could try to kill me twice if it’ll make you feel better.” Luke’s tone had a teasing lilt but was, for the most part, completely serious.  


“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m tired of killing things.” Percy sighed. “I mean, I know I’ve got to kill monsters and whatever until something kills me but that doesn’t mean I’m not tired of it.” He looked down at his right palm instead of at Luke. The little asterisk scar was gone, thanks to the River Styx, but Percy could still picture it in his head. It was now an emotional wound, a wound on his soul. Percy held out his right hand. “I had a scar on my palm from that.”  


Luke touched Percy’s palm with the tips of two fingers. “Did it fade on its own or…”  


“The Styx,” Percy clarified. Luke’s touch was gentle but Percy could imagine that he still felt pain from the sting. He ignored the ghost sensation. “Why didn’t the Styx heal your face?” He winced. “That sounded bad. I mean -”  


“I know what you mean,” Luke cut him off. He traced the lines of Percy’s palm with his fingertip. “Not to be...insensitive, but what Ladon did to me was a lot worse than what the pit scorpion did to your hand.”  


For the first time ever, Percy really thought about a seventeen-year-old Luke facing a hundred-headed dragon alone. Ladon was huge and he was mean and he knew all of the tricks heroes used to get to the golden apples. Even Heracles couldn’t do it alone; Zoë had helped him. Now that Percy thought of it, it was incredible that Luke had escaped Ladon with only one small scar on his face. Percy’s gaze dropped down to the shirt that covered Luke’s torso and he knew, with complete surety, that Luke had suffered more than the scar on his face.  


Luke pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose to cover his eyes again but the set of his mouth and eyebrows gave away his feelings.  


“How bad was it?” Percy asked, dreading the answer.  


Luke sighed. Then he lifted up his shirt, arching his back so that Percy could see the scars clearly. The scars were surprisingly neat for being made by an animal. They extended from Luke’s right pectoral to his left hip and dipped down past the waistband of his swim trunks. Five parallel lines, each an inch thick. They made white rivets in Luke’s skin. There was a different scar down the center of Luke’s chest, shaped like Y and very thin.  


“How did you survive that?” Ladon’s claws were bad enough that one scratch killed Zoë. It seemed impossible that Luke had survived five huge gashes from the dragon.  


Luke settled his shirt back in place and took a drink of his Coke before answering. “I almost didn’t. I was with two other demigods. One distracted Ladon long enough for the other to put my organs back in my body and do a fieldwork patch job. The nectar didn’t really help. It turns out that Ladon is poisonous.”  


Percy nodded because he knew.  


“Ladon ate the demigod who’d been distracting him. The other one died on the way back to Camp. I was losing so much blood that monsters were following the trail. She defended me but the monsters overwhelmed her.” Luke reached for his throat, then ran a hand through his hair instead. “Chiron had to perform emergency surgery on me to put everything back where it was supposed to go.” That was what the Y-shaped scar was. “I’m the one who begged Chiron to stop sending demigods on pointless quests.”  


All of that made perfect, terrible sense. Except there was one thing that Percy still didn’t have an answer to. “How did you survive the poison?”  


Luke smiled but didn’t say anything.  


“Oh come on. You aren’t going to tell me?”  


“I haven’t told anyone.”  


“You tried to kill me twice.”  


“If you think about it for a minute, you’ll figure it out.” Luke was still smiling. He put the can of Coke to his lips but was smiling too much to drink it.  


So Percy thought about it. It wasn’t the nectar and no one came to Luke’s rescue. So that left. “The apple?” Percy whispered. “You ate…”  


“Not the whole thing. Only a few bites and I lost the rest before I got back to Camp.” Luke wasn’t smiling anymore. He ran his nail over the rim of his can. “I _think_ Chiron is still keeping his word. I haven’t really been around the past six years to make sure.”  


“They’ve all been life or death,” Percy confirmed. His mind was swimming with the new information. Percy knew that he was lucky in the wound department; he’d never had anything that couldn’t be fixed with a few sips of nectar. “Annabeth doesn’t know, does she?”  


Luke shook his head. “I don’t think it would have stopped her if she _had_ known.”  


“Probably not,” Percy agreed. He looked out over the lake and thought about the scars on Luke’s torso. Even when he thought he knew most of Luke’s secrets, Luke managed to surprise him. 

  
  
  


Percy and Annabeth hadn’t kissed since Luke arrived at Camp. They didn’t talk about why they weren’t kissing. Percy liked to think that it made Annabeth uncomfortable to kiss in front of Luke for the same reasons it made Percy uncomfortable to kiss in front of Luke. It also made him uncomfortable to touch Luke in front of Annabeth and for Annabeth to touch Luke at all. Percy didn’t understand it but the feelings were strong enough that he couldn’t really ignore them. 

Since Percy didn’t want to leave Luke alone, in case someone tried something, Percy and Annabeth didn’t get a chance for privacy. On the other hand, Percy and Luke got quite a bit of privacy and they both seemed to seek it out at every opportunity. They didn’t kiss, because that would be ridiculous, but they used the opportunities to talk. Or not talk. Sometimes it was nice to sit in silence with someone who didn’t constantly demand to know what was on your mind. 

  
  
  


Exactly a week after Luke arrived, Percy opened his cabin door to see Clarisse on the other side. He hadn’t even smelled her coming. “Can I help you?” he asked in a way that he hoped conveyed he wanted her to go away. 

“We need to talk,” Clarisse said stiffly. Her eyes flickered around the room but she couldn’t see Luke’s bunk from the door. 

Percy stepped outside and closed the cabin door behind him. 

Clarisse stood too close for comfort. “I’m leaving for college today,” she said as though Percy wasn’t aware of the fact. “Sherman is going to keep an eye on _him_ while I’m gone and call me if he starts any trouble.” 

Percy crossed his arms over his chest. “Great.” She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. 

Clarisse tilted her head and studied him through narrow eyes. It was a look that Annabeth gave him a lot. “I don’t know why you’re suddenly on his side but we can’t trust him and you would do well to remember that. He’s hurt you before.” 

The fact that Clarisse knew about that made Percy’s face turn red. Of course she knew about it; she’d been a year-rounder and he’d had to stay late his first summer. They probably talked about it nonstop. It felt strange to have such a private, intimate thing being talked about. It was worse than the feeling he’d had when the entire camp came out to watch him and Annabeth kissing. “I never said I trust him,” he said hotly. 

Clarisse scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Please. Just because my dad is Ares, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.” 

Percy pinched the bridge of his nose. “My judgement is not going to be clouded by Luke or whatever it is you think. I didn’t fight in two wars just to let demigods suffer more. If Luke needs to be taken care of, then I’ll do it.”

Clarisse let out a relieved sigh. “I’m trusting you, Percy.” 

“I’ll keep them safe,” Percy promised. “I always do.” 

Clarisse punched Percy in the shoulder in what seemed like an unusually affectionate gesture from her. She had matured somewhat since Percy came to Camp five years ago. At least, she wasn’t out for his blood anymore, which Percy took as a win. “See you around, Percy.”

“Bye, Clarisse,” Percy said. He watched as she walked away from the cabins and towards the lake. Then, he turned and went back inside. 

Luke stood beneath the hippocampi figures, head tilted back to look up at them. “It can be easy to forget that there are good _and_ bad monsters.” 

Percy didn’t reply. He leaned against his door and observed Luke. 

Luke kept his eyes trained on the bronze figures. They had a rainbow sheen and looked just like the real animals. “Are you planning to take care of me?” Luke asked very casually. 

Percy’s eyes traced over the graceful curves of Luke’s throat, up the jut of his chin, and the Cupid’s bow shape of his lips. His eyes got caught there, caught on the pink of Luke’s mouth. The thought was only there for a moment, only half formed in his mind, when he had a flash of memory - blood turning those lips red - and any soft feelings within Percy turned brittle like ash in an unlit hearth. Percy went back to bed, tired and seeking escape from his thoughts. “You came to me. I don’t think I’ve got a choice. But I’m doing a good job so far, right?”

“I’ll leave if you ask me to,” Luke said. His blue eyes followed Percy to the bed. 

Percy curled onto his side and pulled the blanket up to his chin. “You haven’t done anything wrong. Yet.”

Luke snorted. “Such faith you have in me.” A few heartbeats of silence followed this statement. Then Luke approached Percy’s bed on feet that barely made a sound. He knelt beside the bed. “Are you alright? You’ve been sleeping a lot.”

“I’m just tired,” Percy said without opening his eyes. He felt around for Luke’s head and accidentally smacked him in the nose. From there, Percy found Luke’s hair and ruffled it. “I just need a nap.” 

Luke huffed with annoyance and pulled Percy’s hand from off his head. He laced their fingers together and laid their joined hands on the mattress. 

  
  
  


Lately when Percy looked at Nico, he wondered what it would be like to date him. It felt entirely unfair to Percy that he never even got a chance to decide if he returned Nico’s feelings. The words had been deceptively simple to the point of childishness yet they still stung; _you’re cute but you’re not my type._

“Percy!” Annabeth elbowed him in the ribs. “Are you listening?” 

“Uh, yeah. Right.” Percy jolted out of his thoughts. He tore his eyes away from Nico and Will, who were cuddling like koalas, and instinctively looked for Luke. 

Luke was right where Percy had left him, sitting beneath a tree fifteen feet away. He was hunched over, focused on braiding wildflowers into a crown, but Luke looked up as though sensing Percy’s eyes on him. The scars on his face shifted when he smiled. 

Percy’s heart slowed from a gallop to a trot. He returned his attention to the faces around him; Annabeth, Piper, Nico, Will, and Rachel. 

The conversation continued around him, flowing like a river around a rock. 

Percy sat on the grass underneath a huge juniper tree between Annabeth and Rachel. Looking at Rachel in her over-sized, paint splattered shirt and short shorts made Percy ache. Her long legs were crisscrossed, her feet bare. She didn’t shave her legs unlike most girls, but Percy found that he liked that just as much as he did Annabeth’s smooth legs. He didn’t even mind the dirt on her bare heels. Rachel was another one of those _almosts_ who was snatched away before he could fully decide if she was what he wanted. Percy wanted to kiss her cheek but if he dared, Annabeth would punch him; even though that’s all Percy could do with Rachel. 

Nico and Will sat on Rachel’s other side with their arms and legs intertwined as though they couldn’t stop touching. It was the honeymoon phase for them still. Time would tell if the relationship would last but for the moment they were making the most of the serotonin dump. 

On their other side was Piper. She looked like a million drachmas too, with her black hair brushed to a lovely gloss and braided down her back. She wore a vest over her Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that somehow managed to accentuate her curves rather than take away from them. Piper’s eyes always looked like a kaleidoscope of colors but lately they tended to stick to shades of brown; sandy, dark, even yellow and orange. It was stunning to see. Her brow was furrowed as she talked, voice melodic and enchanting. 

Annabeth sat between Piper and Percy. Her outfit hadn’t changed over the five years they’d known each other - still the orange shirt and beige shorts - but her body sure had changed. All improvements, of course. Her hips were wider, she had an actual butt now, and her shirt was a bit tighter in the front. Percy could see the blue of a bra strap peeking out the collar of her shirt. Annabeth kept her hair swept up in a messy bun and a pencil tucked behind her ear. She was getting wrinkles on her forehead from furrowing her brow in concentration but Percy thought it was cute. 

They talked about Leo’s disappearance but Percy didn’t contribute much to the conversation. He was barely listening, knew it all already. Nico had felt Leo die but he was unsure of where Leo’s soul went. No one could find him. Piper and Jason were going to go on another search-and-rescue mission once the Luke situation was taken care of. They talked because it made them feel better to discuss their plans. The plan hadn’t changed since Leo disappeared; find him. 

Percy’s gaze wandered back to Luke. It was a relief now that most of the other campers were gone because that meant less people around to hurt Luke...or be hurt by him. 

Luke had put the flower crown on his head. He was working on something else now. This time he didn’t look up. 

Rachel nudged Percy’s knee with her own. “Have you had any dreams about him?”

“About Luke?” Percy asked dumbly. He cursed himself; he should have been paying attention.

“About Leo,” Rachel clarified.

“No,” Percy said with a sigh. He and Leo weren’t super close but he should have had some dreams about him, right? Percy always dreamed of demigods and people in danger. Dare he even think it, but sometimes Percy felt more prophetic than the Oracle herself.

“Have you had any dreams about Luke?” Annabeth asked. She looked like she was going to hit Percy if he didn’t answer correctly. 

“Not lately,” Percy said honestly. There was one dream, but Percy wasn’t sure if that was even about Luke. It had left him feeling like a hollowed out tree, carved out of everything that made him alive. 

After that, the meeting broke up. 

Rachel invited Piper back to her cave to play some video games and the girls walked off into the forest together. 

Nico and Will dissolved into shadows, probably going to find a secluded place to make out. 

Annabeth patted Percy’s leg before standing up. “I’ve got archery in ten minutes. I’ll see you at dinner.” Then she was gone, sprinting towards her cabin to get ready. 

Once she was gone, Luke wandered over to Percy. He sat down in front of Percy. “Could I borrow your hand?” 

Percy offered his left hand to Luke, wondering what he wanted. He still felt disconnected from his body, as though his consciousness was several feet away rather than in his flesh. Nico, Rachel, Calypso. Too many _what ifs_ for a seventeen year old. Why was he thinking about what ifs now?

Luke took Percy’s hand and very carefully slid something onto his finger. It was a ring made from a whole daisy, the stem tied into a delicate knot and the flower resting on top of Percy’s finger. Luke had a matching one on his finger too. He kept his eyes downcast. His hands lingered on Percy’s, making minute adjustments to the way the flower ring rested on Percy’s skin. 

“Thanks,” Percy said. He thought; _too many what ifs._

  
  
  


On Percy’s seventeenth birthday, he woke up before the sun rose. Percy knew that the sun hadn’t risen because the walls of his cabin took on a golden tint at sunrise and a rosy tint at sunset. During the night, the walls were a deep blue and during the day they seemed to glow. He laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling, and trying to place the feeling in his chest. Fragile, he decided, and something he didn’t have a word for. 

Today marked the day that the counselors would revote on whether Luke would be allowed to stay at Camp Half-Blood or not. Percy wasn’t stupid; he knew that they wouldn’t let Luke stay even though Luke had been an angel the entire two weeks. The only reason they allowed him to stay this long was because Percy had demanded it. Percy threw around his weight as a powerful war veteran; he may not be their friend but he had their respect. That wouldn’t be enough a second time. 

Percy turned his head to look across the room at Luke, sleeping on the bunk opposite him. Luke slept on his stomach, wearing Percy’s hoodie even though it was still warm out; evidenced by the sheets twisted around his feet. One arm was under his pillow, where he kept the tri-dagger, fearful of attack even in sleep, even in a place that was supposed to be safe for demigods. Percy didn’t want Luke to feel the rejection of being evicted, to be kicked out of his home. While he didn’t know Luke’s emotional state, Percy thought that fragile might be an adequate descriptor for him too.

The nature of being a Greek demigod meant that Percy believed in Fate and divine signs. Luke’s presence here _had_ to mean something. The fact that he’d been back from the dead for months and just _now_ came to Percy - when there were no more wars to fight - had to mean _something_. Percy made his decision. He got out of bed and tiptoed over to Luke. Gently, ready to jump away if Luke woke up fighting, Percy shook Luke’s shoulder. 

Luke groaned. “Hmm?” He kept his eyes closed. 

“Let’s leave,” Percy whispered as he crouched on the floor beside the bed. His heart felt light and heavy at the same time. He knew what Luke had been waiting for now. They would disentangle themselves from Camp, from the gods. 

Luke groaned again. He propped himself onto his elbows and rubbed his face with both hands. “When are we going?” His words were slurred with sleep.

“As soon as we pack. I want to leave before everyone else wakes up.” Maybe it was cowardly, but Percy wasn’t interested in saying goodbye. Despite what Annabeth thought, Percy had never run away from anything in his life. He had tried fighting, now he wanted to know if there was something to running away. 

“Okay.” Luke ran a hand through his white blond hair and yawned. “Gimme a minute.” He was slow to rise these days, now that he wasn’t in charge of anyone but himself. 

Satisfied, Percy returned to his side of the room. He picked out what he needed and piled it on his bed. He didn’t have a solid plan but he knew that he wouldn’t be coming back. Percy hadn’t acquired many personal items so almost everything he owned was easily replaceable; his clothes and toiletries. gods, how many outfits had Percy burned through over the years? But some things weren’t. He reached up and unhooked one of the bronze hippocampi that Tyson had hung on the ceiling. Carefully, he laid it on the bed. It was the size of his outstretched hand and it looked delicate despite weighing probably five pounds. Percy only owned one book - _The Song Of Achilles_ \- and pressed between its pages was the daisy ring Luke had given him. He added the book and the ring to the pile. At the bottom of his trunk, he found a photo of himself, Annabeth, and Grover from...a few years ago? He wasn’t sure but he looked younger there and his hair was solid black. He set the photo on the pile. 

The bed creaked as Luke got out of it. His bare feet were quiet on the floorboards. Luke didn’t have much to pack; some toiletries from the Camp store, the celestial bronze tri-dagger, and all of the clothes he’d been ‘borrowing’ from Percy. 

Percy collected all of his garbage into a plastic bag specifically for that purpose. He was better about not making a mess but sometimes he got lazy. He tied off the garbage bag and set it on the floor. There were two backpacks in Percy’s trunk; one was a Camp Half-Blood pack and the other was the blue one that Ares had given him. The blue one smelled faintly of ozone but the orange one felt like wearing his address around his neck. 

Percy was still debating when Luke came up behind him. Luke wrapped his arms around Percy’s waist and rested his chin on Percy’s shoulder. He looked at the pile on the bed. “Is that everything you’re bringing?”

Percy’s heart skipped a beat. He considered going for Riptide but Luke didn’t feel tensed for a fight. He nodded in agreement. There was a tremor in his bones. 

“Let me pack it for you.” Luke waited until Percy nodded again, then let go of Percy and sat on the edge of his bed. He very efficiently sorted the clothes into outfits and folded the outfits into bundles a little bigger than a flashlight. He chose the blue pack without hesitation and put the clothes at the bottom. Next he put Percy’s razor, toothpaste, and travel-sized toothbrush, shampoo, and conditioners into the pack. “Where’s your deodorant?” 

“I’m out,” Percy admitted. He watched Luke pack with fascination. Luke was good at packing and making the most of limited space; just like Hermes. Percy kept that comparison to himself. 

Luke hummed. “We’ll pick some up.” He zipped that pocket closed, then opened the middle pocket. Luke shook a pillow free from its case, then wrapped the hippocampus in the pillowcase and set it in the pocket. He picked up the photo, looked at it for a few seconds, then put it between the pages of Percy’s book. The book was placed standing next to the hippocampus figure. He zipped that pocket closed. Finally, Luke put Percy’s wallet and apartment key into the front pocket and zipped that closed too. The backpacks and both of their pillows were placed by the door. “Okay,” Luke said with a decisive nod. “How are we getting out of here?” 

Percy’s first thought was Blackjack and he dismissed it almost immediately. He didn’t want to traumatize Blackjack or given anyone an easy way to track them down. “I can call the Grey Sisters to get us back to the city and then…” Percy trailed off, embarrassed to admit that he didn’t have a plan. 

Luke sighed. “I’ve got a credit card. Just decide where you want to go.” He gestured to the cabin. “We should finish cleaning before we leave.” 

They remade the beds and swept out the cabin. The cabins got surprisingly dusty and there were enough dust bunnies beneath the bed to make a whole cat. Luke was better at cleaning than Percy so Percy left him to it and scrounged up something to write on. He wrote a goodbye note on the back of a clean napkin because he didn’t want to say goodbye face-to-face but it felt wrong to just leave. And there was something else he wanted to make as clear as possible. 

The note said: 

**I am done. I’m not going to go on any more quests or fight in any more wars. I don’t care if it's a god or a prophecy or a friend who needs me. I’m not interested. Don’t look for me. Anyone who does track me down will find that I can and will turn myself into a fish to avoid you. Remember Daphne and Apollo? That’s what I will do. Seriously. Just leave me alone.  
-P.J.  
PS. Luke is with me. I’ll keep him out of trouble.**

Percy left the note on the space his pillow normally occupied. He double checked to make sure Riptide was still in his pocket. Then he put on his sneakers. Sandals weren’t as good for traveling and Percy wasn’t sure where they were going to wind up. Or even how they were going to get there. Making decisions was something that Percy wanted no part of...aside from the decision to leave. 

They shouldered their backpacks and put their pillows beneath their arms. They took deep breaths simultaneously then laughed quietly. 

Luke held the door open for Percy. 

Percy walked through it. 

Luke followed him and closed the cabin door behind them. 

It was still dark outside, the sky a deep blue that was dotted with glittering stars. With the sun down, it was still cool out, not yet hot and humid like August got. In the far distance there were clouds over the ocean, indicating that later it would storm. The predawn quiet wasn’t even broken by birdsong yet. The monsters from the forest were silent too, sleeping after a night of growling and prowling. 

Campers always went to bed at moon high and rose with the sun so no one was out yet. No one saw them walking around the lake. They passed the volleyball court and the baby blue painted Big House. This would be the last time that Percy saw any of it and he thought of good memories as he passed. The good memories did not bring doubt or a change of mind; even sour memories were made sweet by the knowledge that Percy wasn’t going to return. They hiked up Half-Blood Hill, passing the massive pine tree that marked the border. 

Peleus the dragon curled around the pine tree. Smoke rose from his nostrils as he slept. He lifted an eyelid as they passed but closed it once again. It didn’t matter to Peleus who _left_ the camp. Apparently he didn’t hold Luke’s choices against him because Luke managed to get into Camp with no problems. 

Percy and Luke walked side by side over the boundary without looking back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Percy get a car and hit the road together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Luke Sings: Heads Carolina, Tails California by Jo Dee Messina and Prayin’ For Daylight by Rascal Flatts.

### “There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.” ― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

They stood in the dirt by the edge of the road, small black pieces of asphalt beneath their sneakers and the grass left a few feet behind them. Black marks, potholes, and wicked gouges marred the asphalt; all evidence of many fights along this stretch of road. The trees in the area showed damage too; deep claw marks raked down the trunks, black spirals burnt into the bark, branches broken off and rotting on the ground. 

Luke reached out and slipped his hand into Percy’s. He squeezed just enough to get Percy’s attention. “Do you trust me?” 

Percy looked at their conjoined hands and then up to Luke’s face. The answer was obviously no. Percy was only running away with an older man, planning on never returning to New York again. Of course he didn’t trust Luke. 

As the silence stretched on without Percy saying anything, Luke slowly nodded. He sighed but didn’t seem overly surprised. “Okay, fine. That’s fair. Do you trust me enough to get us a ride?” 

Instinctively, Percy wanted to say no. He didn’t trust Luke at all because Luke had betrayed his trust and hurt him. But they were running away _together_ and that meant Percy had to trust Luke beyond what he’d done so far, which amounted to trusting Luke wouldn’t kill him in his sleep. “Yes,” he said. 

With his free hand, Luke pulled a drachma from his pocket. He said, _“Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês.”_ Then he tossed the drachma into the street. It melted through the asphalt. 

A few seconds later, the asphalt where the coin had disappeared turned dark bubbling red like blood. From the noxious pool rose a gray taxi woven out of smoke. The passenger window rolled down and an old woman stuck her head out. “Passage? Passage?” 

“Two,” Luke said, and gave them an address that Percy didn’t know. He opened the cab’s back door and waited for Percy to get in. 

Percy slid onto the cracked back seat. He wondered where they were going but didn’t care enough to actually ask. If Luke was planning to kill him, well, Percy wasn’t going to put up much of a fight. He did put the big chain seatbelt on though. It was one thing if Luke tried to kill him; it was another if he died via car accident and the Gray Sisters. No thank you. When Percy finally died - in what he was sure was going to be a violent way - it wouldn’t be because of something as mundane as a car accident. 

They took the Gray Sisters Taxi to what turned out to be a used car dealership. To Percy’s surprise, the sisters didn’t go spouting off coordinates or prophetic nonsense that would turn into a headache for Percy later. Sure, they fought over their eye and who got to test the coin, but otherwise they were perfectly well behaved. Still, Percy was glad to be out of the car. He hated taking their taxi. Their driving was atrocious. As soon as he and Luke stepped out, the taxi went speeding away and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. 

The used car dealership didn’t look like much. The lot was a few acres and there were spikes to shred tires laid out at the entrances that looked like they could simply be rolled up and avoided. There were several white tents in the back. The cars on the lot looked to be in fairly decent shape at first glance. The dealership wouldn’t be open for a half an hour. 

So they walked over to a 24 hour minimart. They picked out some personal bowls of cereal and single milks. After examining some waxy apples and hard oranges, Luke chose a banana. He stood in front of the coffee machines for a few moments, deciding what he wanted. 

Percy was pretty sure he didn’t like coffee but had never tried it before. Now that he was seventeen, he thought that maybe he should start. Coffee was supposed to be the drink of adults, after all. 

Luke chose a Brazilian roast, pouring enough cream in it that the dark brown liquid paled to beige. He poured sugar packet after sugar packet into the cup. “You can try mine and if you don’t like it, then get a juice or something.” It was as though he was reading Percy’s mind. 

Percy tried Luke’s coffee. It was very hot and bitter even with all of the sugar. He made a face, handed the cup back to Luke, and wandered off to get an orange juice from the cooler. He walked by the donut display case twice before breaking down and choosing one with sprinkles. 

Luke met him by the counter. Their total came out to $8.92 and Percy counted out the cash for it. Now that he did demigod stuff every summer, Percy hadn’t had a paying job since he was eleven. He was strapped for cash and had to hope that Luke would be paying for things more expensive than breakfast. Paul sometimes gave Percy money in his birthday cards but Percy had consistently spent that on dates with Annabeth. Percy hadn’t gotten a card yet this year; since he normally spent his birthday at his mom’s apartment Paul just hand delivered it. 

Luke and Percy sat on the curb of the car dealership and ate their breakfast. The cereal was stale but it was fuel for the tank so Percy didn’t complain about it. As they sat on the cold concrete, the sky began to lighten to a golden hue. Soon, the Campers would be rising and shortly after that, they would discover Percy and Luke missing. The idea of being found was a vice on Percy’s chest, squeezing like a snake. He couldn’t _actually_ turn himself into a fish; at least he was pretty sure he couldn’t. “I want to say goodbye to my mom,” Percy confided. He was going to say goodbye to her whether Luke wanted him to or not, but he was curious about how Luke would take it. 

“We can do that,” Luke agreed easily. He peeled his banana and took a bite. “Has she moved since I died?” 

Percy felt a momentary shock of cold flood his veins at the realization that Luke had his address. That Luke had had his address for possibly years; since they moved out of the apartment Smelly Gabe had occupied. Did he threaten Percy’s mom? No. Sally would have said something to Percy about it. “Nope. Same place.” 

“Okay. We’ll go over there after we get our wheels.” Luke finished his banana, gathered their trash, and threw it away in a nearby garbage can. Watching Luke clean up after himself reminded Percy of Luke intentionally littering five years ago. Maybe Luke had learned something after all. Maybe. 

The two watched as the dealership’s staff began to drive by them and go into the building to prepare for opening. On the hour, they unlocked their doors. 

Percy and Luke stood up, stretched, and headed over to find someone to sell them a car. The man they met was middle aged and Hispanic. His black hair was slicked back and his tie was the same color as his hazel eyes. The name tag pinned to his chest said that his name was Miguel and he was happy to help them. “You’ve come to the right place! We’ve got the perfect vehicles for two young men such as yourselves.” Miguel showed them around the lot, pointing out mostly sports cars and old muscle cars. 

Percy had no idea what kind of car they were looking for or what their price range was. He followed beside Luke and kept watching Luke’s face for any sign that he saw something he liked. Percy thought it was pretty nice of Miguel not to stare at Luke’s scars and immediately wondered if that meant Miguel was a monster. 

Luke’s body language wasn’t tense and he didn’t have one hand on the tri-dagger he kept in his hoodie pocket. 

Finally, Miguel pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay, I think I know what you’re looking for. Come with me.” They followed Miguel to a white tent at the back of the lot. Inside were three cars that looked nicer than the ones Miguel had been showing them. Miguel was talking but Percy didn’t hear him. 

Percy was staring at a turquoise car. He tugged on Luke’s sleeve. If there wasn’t anything wrong with it, he wanted it. Percy didn’t believe in love at first sight but this was pretty dang close. 

Miguel noticed the look on Percy’s face. “Ah yes, our emerald turquoise 1967 Chevy Impala. A good choice. I thought you might like it.” He patted the hood of the car. Miguel went on to say that it was the same model car that those brothers from that show drove around in. Then he told them the price tag. “Sixty thousand.” He took the key off a ring attached to his hip and handed it to Luke. “Try it out.” 

Percy felt his hopes crash and burn. That was so much money. He couldn’t believe a used car cost that much. 

Luke looked the car over critically. He examined every inch of it. He tried every feature from the visors to the blinkers. He listened to the engine rumble, fiddled with the radio, turned the AC on and off. He climbed into the back seat, opened and closed both doors. Luke walked around to the trunk and opened it and peered inside. He examined the tires, the rims, and then slid beneath the car. 

Percy couldn’t tell who was more nervous; himself or Miguel. Luke didn’t look happy by what he saw and Miguel had begun to sweat. Percy didn’t see anything visibly wrong with the car but he wasn’t an expert. 

Finally, Luke turned to Miguel. “This car isn’t worth sixty thousand of anything. It’s a piece of shit and dangerous to boot. You expect me to pay sixty thousand to let my baby cousin drive around in a health hazard like this?” 

Percy realized that _he_ was the baby cousin in question. This wasn’t the first time that Luke had called him baby. He wasn’t sure how he felt about pet names. 

Luke wasn’t finished. “My beloved cousin has spent so long saving his money and I promised I would take him here to pick out a nice car. I’ll help him fix it, of course. But I don’t want him to be scammed. All these repairs will be costly for such an old car.” Luke moved behind Percy and covered his ears with both hands. Percy could still hear what he said. “His dad just died and his mom died when he was a kid. He’s an orphan now. They used to work on old cars together. Now this is a Chevy Impala but the year isn’t 1967. So what are you trying to pull, here, by scamming an honest and hard working kid out of his money?” 

Sweat rolled down Miguel’s face in beads. He looked from Luke to the car and pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket. He dabbed at his forehead and quickly scanned the paperwork on the windshield. “You’re right,” he sounded confused. “I didn’t personally check this car in myself. One of the new boys must have made a mistake. Let’s negotiate. I’m sure that we can come to an agreement on the price.” 

Luke flicked Percy’s ear with his thumb before going to stand beside Miguel and the car. He began to point out everything wrong with the car. Rust, scratches, dents, electronic things that didn’t work, seatbelts missing...the list went on and on. Luke even popped the hood and they both looked at the engine. 

Miguel nodded each time, looking more apprehensive as the value of his car went down and down. 

Percy couldn’t see anything wrong with the car at all. It looked perfect to him. But every time Miguel glanced at him, Percy made sure to look sad and upset. 

By the time Luke was done negotiating, all of the tires were going to be replaced for free, the tank topped off, an air freshener of their choice would be included, and the total with tax was an even two thousand US Dollars. Then they were each given a water bottle and a can of soda as a courtesy. Luke paid for the car with a black Hermes Express credit card. 

The paperwork was signed and given to the proper parties. Apologizes and well wishes were bestowed upon Percy and Luke. Then Miguel gave them the keys. They were free to drive off the lot. 

Percy and Luke put their backpacks into the trunk. Luke slid into the driver's seat, Percy took the passenger seat. He touched the white leather. “I hope we don’t ruin these seats.” 

Luke grinned at him as they drove off the lot and into traffic. “We’ll be careful.” 

Percy found that he liked the bench seat. There was plenty of room to move around. “ _Is_ this a 1967 Chevy Impala? How did you do that back there?” 

Luke’s grin widened. “Yes it is.” He glanced at Percy. “I manipulated the Mist. Why do you think they didn’t say anything about my face?” 

Luke’s ability to manipulate the Mist didn’t come as a surprise to Percy. It seemed like a basic skill for a general to know. Percy grinned back at Luke. He was utterly charmed after seeing that in action. Negotiation was one of the things that Percy rarely got to see a child of Hermes do and it had been fascinating. He turned in his seat to face Luke. “So, I’m your beloved, baby cousin?” 

Luke shrugged. He was still smiling as they drove away from the rising sun and toward Sally’s apartment. “Do you know how to drive?” Luke asked, clearly changing the subject. 

“Yup,” Percy said. He faced forward again. He rolled the window down. The wind whipped his hair back. “I’ve got my license.” 

“Cool,” Luke said. He cracked his window a touch. 

“I won’t graduate high school but at least I can drive,” Percy said dryly. Hera/Juno managed to completely ruin Percy’s school schedule. At least Kronos never bothered Percy during the school year. That probably had something to do with Luke. 

Luke glanced at Percy briefly before returning his gaze to the road beyond the windshield. “I didn’t graduate either. Chiron had me go through a GED program at Camp.” 

Percy considered that. He twisted the cap on his water and took a drink. “Did you ever go to a real school?” 

“Nope.” 

Percy’s jaw dropped. He put the cap back on his water. “Not even before you ran away?” 

“No,” Luke said. “Mom wouldn’t let me.” That seemed to make him uncomfortable. 

But Percy wanted answers. He _deserved_ answers. “I thought she loved you.” 

Luke growled, a sound that belonged in the throat of a monster, not a demigod. This was the first time that Luke had really gotten angry at Percy since they reunited. “She _did_. She didn’t want me to be around mortals.” Luke’s face turned pink with embarrassment. “She said I was too special for mortal school, so she homeschooled me. Or tried to.” 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult May,” Percy said because he realized that he’d accidentally said something against Luke’s mom. He knew that he would be upset if someone said something like that about his mom. 

They weren’t far from Sally’s apartment so it didn’t take more than twenty minutes to get there. Luke navigated the parking until he found a spot. “Do you want me to wait here?” 

Percy seriously considered the question. He looked up at the brownstone that made up his apartment complex. Did he dare to bring Luke into Sally’s life, even for a moment? Was Luke worse than Smelly Gabe? No; especially when it came to actual scent. And Percy had met May. It seemed like Luke should meet Sally. Maybe if she met Luke, Sally would understand why Percy was doing this. And she wouldn’t worry when the others went to her with horror stories. “I met your mom. You should meet mine.” 

“Okay,” Luke agreed. He turned off the engine and double checked that the doors were in fact locked. 

Percy waited for Luke on the sidewalk and tracked the man with his eyes. He was surprised by how quickly he’d grown used to the new scars on Luke’s face. “Um, my parents are pretty cool so you can keep your glamour off if you want to.” Not that Percy could tell when Luke had it on anyway. Maybe it was only for mortals or maybe Percy was getting better at seeing through the Mist. Now that would be cool. He led the way up to his apartment. 

Paul opened the door and smiled when he saw Percy. “Your mother is going to be so happy that you’re okay. Sally!” He called into the apartment. “Percy’s home!” Paul noticed Luke for the first time. His expression was confused but not horrified or pitying so Luke must have been wearing a glamour again. “He’s brought a boy with him!” 

Sally’s footsteps could be heard from outside the apartment. Paul didn’t even have a chance to invite them in before Sally brushed past him and threw her arms around Percy in a tight hug. “Oh my gods, my baby!” She kissed Percy’s hair, cupped his cheeks, then kissed his forehead. “Percy, I’m so happy to see you.” She didn’t add alive but she didn’t need to. 

“Hi mom,” Percy said. For a moment it felt like the weight was lifted, like he could actually feel happiness. But only for the briefest of moments. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I had Camp stuff to take care of.” 

“Dear, let's let the boys inside. We can’t keep them in the hall,” Paul said. He put his hands on Sally’s shoulders, not pulling her away, just reminding her gently. 

“Of course,” Sally said promptly. She kept one arm around Percy and rubbed her cheek against his hair. “Oh, my baby. What happened to your hair?” It wasn’t until she said something that Percy remembered about his hair and how it was mostly gray. 

Percy gestured for Luke to follow them inside. He let his mom lead him to the living room couch and sit him down. 

Luke and Paul each took a chair. 

Sally tilted her head ever so slightly to the right as she studied Luke. “Percy, dear, are those your jeans?” 

Percy hadn’t even known those were his jeans the first time he saw Luke in them. It must be a mom power to recognize her kids' clothes. “Luke just came back from the dead so he’s borrowing my clothes.” 

Paul dropped the television remote in shock. “That’s...harder to believe than the gods being real,” he said. Then his face turned pink. He held up both hands, palms out. “I didn’t mean that I don’t believe you, because I do, I’ve just heard that returning from the dead is...almost impossible.” 

“The almost is crucial there,” Luke said. He glanced at Percy, a question in his eyes. 

“How do you two know each other?” Sally asked. 

“Um,” Percy said. 

“We met when Percy came to Camp. I tried to kill him twice,” Luke said. Then he looked at Percy again, searching for social cues. Was he doing this right? 

“Oh,” Paul said. He looked to Sally, also searching for the proper response. “Did Percy win that fight?” There was a pregnant pause as Paul’s question sank in. It was probably supposed to be a joke. Maybe. This whole situation was awkward. 

“No,” Percy said. 

“Yes,” Luke said. 

They stared at each other. 

Sally cleared her throat. “Well they’re obviously both alive,” she said, ignoring that Percy had told them Luke was just revived. “Where do you stand now?” 

If this was a game show, that would be the million dollar question. Where did they stand now? Percy wasn’t sure. They’d just bought a car. They were going to run away. Percy looked to Luke for an answer, for something to tell his mother. 

Luke’s attention was no longer on Percy. He was studying the framed photos of Percy and his family on the walls. There were a lot of photos of just Percy and Sally, eight by tens taken professionally where they wore matching outfits. There was one of just Paul and Percy smiling at a joke Percy couldn’t remember; another of the three of them together, Paul and Sally flanking Percy. There were photos of Paul and Sally together, lovingly looking into each other’s eyes during their wedding and later in casual wear. Of course there were the wedding photos, taken of the three of them in their best formal wear, Sally in her beautiful white dress. Not all of the pictures were of their small family; there was a lone photo of Percy’s uncle and there were photos of Percy with the other kids of Camp Half-Blood. Percy still remembered how hard it was to get everyone to sit still long enough for a picture. _“Come on, guys! My mom wants a picture of everyone. Thirty seconds and it’s over.”_ A few photos of him and Annabeth with their arms around each other. 

Percy’s heart ached at the sight of those photos. Some of the demigods in them were dead now. And some, like Luke, never had a chance to be in them. “Mom,” Percy said, still looking at Luke looking at the pictures. “I’m...running away.” 

There was movement and then Sally touched Percy’s jaw. “Running away from what, dear?” 

“I don’t want to do this anymore.” Percy didn’t want to look at her because he thought he would cry if he did. “Maybe retiring is a better word for it. I’m _retiring_ from demigod duties.” Now he did look at her, to gauge how she was handling it. 

Sally sat with her back perfectly straight. She looked terribly sad, almost as sad as Percy felt. “I know that life has been hard for you, dear, and I know that you’re tired of the quests, but will the gods respect your wishes?” 

Percy took a deep breath. “About that. I’ve told them I’m going to turn myself into a fish if they try to hunt me down. So, I’m hoping that will deter them.” 

“ _Can_ you turn yourself into a fish?” Paul asked. He sounded interested rather than judgemental. The dude was an unsung hero for accepting everything at face value. 

“Honey, you can’t just turn into a fish to avoid your problems,” mom said. She sounded worried. Percy guessed she didn’t want a fish for a son, which was fair. 

Percy took a calculated risk. He knew that the Camp and possibly the gods would come to Sally’s apartment to look for Percy. So he lied to her. “I absolutely can. Frank is a legacy of Poseidon and he’s a shapeshifter. And besides, Daphne turned into a tree to avoid the sun god and everything worked out for her.” 

“Alright.” Sally put her fingertips together and took a breath. They waited in silence while she gathered her thoughts. “Your father told me that life would be hard for you if you turned out like him. I hoped that he would be wrong but unfortunately he wasn’t.” Her eyes flicked up to Percy’s gray hair. “If you want to retire then you have my blessing.” Sally’s voice wavered at the end. Tears filled her eyes. She knew what this was; that Percy had come to say goodbye one last time. 

Percy put his arms around his mom and gave her a big hug. “Thanks, mom.” 

Sally hugged Percy for a few long moments. When she pulled back, there were no more tears, though her eyes were still watery. She gestured to Luke. “You haven’t told me about this young man. Is he...going with you?” Her eyes asked a different question: _is he safe?_

“Luke and I worked out our differences,” Percy said firmly. “We’re traveling together until we decide to split up.” 

Luke’s brow furrowed just the slightest bit before smoothing out again. He nodded. “That’s the plan.” 

Sally looked between them. She didn’t seem convinced. “Paul, why don’t you go get Percy his birthday card. Luke, if you go just down the hall into the first room, there’s a fire escape with a plant on it. Get a cutting, please.” It was said pleasantly enough but her expression didn’t allow for disobedience. 

Paul got to his feet and pointed down the hall for Luke. Then he went into the kitchen to get Percy’s birthday card. 

Luke rose reluctantly and went to follow Sally’s instructions. He looked over his shoulder several times but eventually disappeared into the bedroom that held the fire escape access. 

Sally put her hands on Percy’s shoulders. “Tell me what happened, tell me everything, Percy. Why is your hair gray? How did Luke die and why is he back from the dead?” 

Luke was easy enough to explain. Percy’s mom had been there for some of it. He got her caught up on everything that had happened over the past nine months. There was so much to tell her and Percy kept expecting Paul and Luke to come back into the room but they didn’t. By the time Percy finished telling her everything, he was shaking. The only reason his tears didn’t fall was because he willed them not to. 

Sally didn’t say anything. She pulled Percy into a hug and rocked back and forth. They held each other. 

Percy breathed in his mom’s familiar scent, sweet like candy. He prayed that he would carry it with him forever, that he would always remember her. Percy’s heart ached and he missed Sally already. She was the one person that Percy never wanted to leave. But she was also the first place that they would look for Percy and he didn’t want to uproot the life she worked so hard for. After taking care of her uncle and Percy for so long, Sally deserved to have a life of her own. “I love you mom,” Percy whispered. 

“I love you too, Percy.” Sally pulled back and kissed his cheek. “I love you so much. I’m so proud of you, Percy. You’ve been so strong.” 

Percy tried to say thank you but the words got caught in his throat. He managed a squeak and mouthed the words. It was dawning on him that this was the last time he was going to see Sally Jackson. If everything went according to plan, Percy would never step foot in New York again. His will broke and the tears rolled down his cheeks. They hugged again. Percy buried his face in Sally’s neck. 

Sally held Percy tight. 

It was at least ten minutes of hugging before Percy pulled away. He wiped his face on his shirt. “Did they get lost?” He asked. 

Sally laughed. “They were giving us a moment, dear.” She pulled a tissue from the box on the coffee table and wiped her face clean. “What about Annabeth? Have you broken up with her?” 

Percy’s face warmed. “I left a note.” 

Sally frowned at him. “Perseus Jackson, I thought I raised you better than that.” 

Percy nodded quickly because sometimes it was easier to agree than to argue. “If I said goodbye in person, she’d chain me to the walls and never let me leave.” He said this in a light tone of voice but Percy was serious. If Annabeth knew Percy was planning to leave and not come back, she would do everything in her power to make sure that he never went anywhere without her ever again. If she wanted to get real extreme, Annabeth would probably break his legs. Just the reminder that they would be discovering his disappearance made Percy antsy. 

Sally frowned as she studied Percy’s face. She seemed to realize he wasn’t entirely joking. “What do you want me to tell them when they come looking for you?” 

The hair on the back of Percy’s neck rose. “Tell them that I don’t want to be found.” He stood up. “Luke?” 

Luke materialized from the hallway in a manner that suggested he’d been listening the whole time. He had a clipping of the moon lace in one hand. “I don’t mean to rush you, but are you about ready, Percy?” 

Paul rejoined them at that moment. He held a blue envelope that seemed way too fat to contain just a birthday card and a couple of twenty dollar bills. “Happy birthday, Percy.” 

Percy took the envelope and gave Paul a quick hug. “Thank you.” He hugged Sally one more time. “I love you. Both of you. I think we have to go now.” 

They walked very quickly back to the car. Neither of them ran but it was a near thing. Luke had the car in reverse before Percy could even close the door all the way. “I feel like someone walked over my grave,” Luke said. He peeled out of the parking lot and sped down the street towards the freeway. 

Percy knew exactly what he was talking about. He put his seat belt on. “Is that a real thing? Can you actually feel it when someone walks on your grave?” 

Luke shrugged. “I was cremated and my dad has my ashes in his house on Olympus. So I don’t know. Maybe if you’re actually buried.” 

Percy opened the blue envelope and pulled out the card. Normally he would read it - they usually got him funny cards - but now he just opened it. There were five crisp hundred dollar bills inside and a sticky note that said _Good Luck_ in Paul’s handwriting. Percy sniffled as he shoved the money into his pocket. 

Luke was breaking traffic laws, even speeding past cop cars, but no one turned their lights on or gave chase. There weren’t even any horns blaring at them. As they passed a building with reflective windows, Percy realized that he couldn’t see the car in the reflection. Luke was manipulating the Mist again, this time to cover their tracks. 

Luke didn’t speak again until they got to the freeway. He increased their speed and merged into traffic. They increased speed again, Luke flipped the turn signal on, and then they switched lanes one at a time until they were in the HOV lane going north. “If we find a town you like, we can stay so that you can finish school,” Luke offered. 

Percy shook his head. “I used to want that. Graduating, the ceremony, all that. But I just don’t care. I haven’t been to school at all this year, I never stayed at a school long enough to have friends. I’m just so tired.” He looked out the window at the world they were passing. It felt alien, insignificant. Nothing mattered outside of this car. 

“If you change your mind, just let me know.” Luke turned the radio on. It was set to a country station, which Luke left it at instead of changing it to something less cringe. He tapped the steering wheel along to the beat. Did Luke _like_ country music? Then, he started to sing: “Baby what do you say we just get lost / Leave this one horse town like two rebels without a cause.” 

Percy thought that Luke couldn’t surprise him anymore than he already had but Percy was wrong. He was starting to remember that Luke was a real life actual person with feelings and opinions and likes and dislikes. And apparently a good singing voice. 

If Luke was at all self conscious, he gave no indication of it. “Heads Carolina, tails California / Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer / Up in the mountains, down by the ocean / Where don't matter long as we're goin' / Somewhere together, I got a quarter / Heads Carolina, tails California.” 

It took Percy a moment to pick apart Luke’s voice enough to realize that he wasn’t just good at singing; he was good at that country twang accent. How on earth did a white boy from a posh neighborhood in the northeast pick up a twang? “Hey did you make the radio do that?” 

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Do what?” He still hadn’t lost the twang in his voice but he didn’t seem to notice. Then he was singing again: “We can go four hundred miles before we stop for gas / Hey, we'll drive for a day and then we'll take a look at the map.” He hummed the chorus. 

“Make it play a song relevant to our situation,” Percy said and felt stupid about it. But when you were a demigod then you couldn’t rule these things out. Hermes didn’t have a twang so it couldn’t be from the God side of the family. 

“Percy, I do not control the music the radio plays,” Luke said during a musical break. He looked happy, brighter, in good spirits. It was so bizarre to see Luke happy. Right on cue, he continued to sing: “We're gonna get outta here if we gotta ride a greyhound bus / Boy, we're bound to outrun the bad luck that's tailin' us.” 

Percy wasn’t convinced that the song wasn’t some divine intervention on a gods part, but he sure as Hades hoped that they could somehow outrun their bad luck. Nemesis was supposed to be a Goddess of balance yet Percy felt his luck was always skewed towards the bad end of the spectrum. 

Luke took the I-87 heading North toward Albany. He drove without hesitation, without debate. It was clear that he knew exactly where he was going and how to get there. The next song came on and Luke sang along with that one too. He was really rocking out to the country music. Literally everyone that Percy knew thought the genre was stupid but when Luke sang it...well Percy would have to disagree with them. 

Percy looked out the window, head resting against the glass. He did what most people do while being passengers on road trips; he imagined running alongside the car on four legs. In his mind he was a beast, maybe a hellhound, bounding along the hills and ravines and between the trees. With one ear, he listened to Luke singing songs about love and tractors and alcohol and breakups. 

The sun shifted from overhead to in front. Putting the visor down only helped a little bit. Percy wished he had his sunglasses so that he could slouch. Luke had remembered his and was wearing them. Percy would have asked for them but he figured since Luke was driving, Luke’s need was greater. 

One would think that driving for six hours straight would be hell but Percy thought it was nice to just not have to do anything. No one expected anything of him. And if he bounced his leg along to the beat of a country song, then so what? He should be able to just enjoy being alive. 

Luke sang until his voice went hoarse. In between songs he drank the entirety of his water and the Coke that the dealership had given him. His voice was still wrecked after six hours of almost nonstop singing. The only times he paused were for commercial breaks or to ask Percy if he needed the rest stop. 

Percy declined every time. He felt like they weren’t getting enough miles between them and the people hunting for them. Luke avoided the tolls, which added a few miles to their time, but still. They rolled past a _City Of Buffalo_ sign. They hadn’t even left New York state yet. 

Luke sighed. He looked tired. “If you want to take the wheel then we can keep going, otherwise, we should find a hotel.” 

“Let’s get a hotel,” Percy said immediately. He had to pee and he really wanted to get out of the car. “Somewhere with room service.” 

“Amen to that,” Luke muttered. He pulled off the freeway and drove through town. They passed a lot of really fancy-looking hotels but Luke didn’t stop at any of them. Instead, he chose a Best Western and pulled up to the driveway. “Do you have a problem sharing a room?” 

“No,” Percy said. They’d already been sharing a room and nothing bad came out of it. Besides, it would be safer now that they weren’t at Camp. 

“Wanna come in with me to get our room?” 

As an answer, Percy unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the passenger door. It felt so good to stand up and stretch after six hours of being in a car. His butt had gone numb from sitting so long. 

Luke got out with a groan. He stretched his arms above his head and cracked his back as he walked around the car. 

Together, they went through the door and into the lobby. It was obnoxiously yellow in the lobby; everything from the walls to the chairs to the carpet. The front desk was a huge, curved thing that took up almost a whole wall. “Good evening! Are you two looking for a room?” 

Luke nodded. “Two beds, please. Non smoking.” 

The woman at the front desk was young, with a ring in her nose, and European features. She was one of those rare people who had freckles and jet black hair. Her smile was dazzling and white but not anywhere near the same level as Apollo’s. Her name tag pronounced that her name was Joy and there was a sticker of a heart on it. “Alright, let me see. Yes, we’ve got a room like that. How long will you be staying with us?” 

“Just tonight,” Luke said. He fished his wallet from his jeans pocket and pulled out the black credit card before she could even ask. Then he slid his drivers license across the counter too. 

“You have room service, right?” Percy asked hopefully. 

Joy smiled at him. “Until nine pm. That’s the cut off time for ordering.” She checked the clock. “You’ve got an hour to order.” 

“Great,” Percy said, relieved. They hadn’t stopped to eat since breakfast and he was starving. He hated not eating; it reminded him of going hungry in Tartarus and that torture was still fresh in his mind. 

“The menus are in the rooms,” Joy went on. She ran Luke’s credit card through the machine and checked that the name on it matched Luke’s license. Then she handed them both back along with a receipt and a pen. “Would you like a copy?” 

Luke signed his name at the bottom of the receipt. “No thanks.” 

Joy handed them a paper slip with the room keys in it and the hotel WiFi password written on it. “Here you go. Checkout is at noon.” 

“Got it,” Luke said. He handed Percy one of the room keys. 

They went outside and Luke drove around until he found a parking space close to where their room was. After he parked, they got out again and retrieved their backpacks from the trunk. The sun was down by the time they went in the back door of the hotel. Their room was on the third floor. They took the elevator up. 

The hotel was clean and looked like it had been recently updated. There weren’t any weird hotel smells or suspicious stains. A couple of girls on their floor walked past, wearing bathing suits and giggling. They seemed to take an interest in Percy and Luke. 

Luke didn’t even look at them. He was on a mission to get to their bedroom. 

Percy tried his best not to look at all of the skin or even the brightly colored triangles of fabric that they wore. He wound up looking at the floor, arguing with himself in his head. Was he allowed to look? Technically, he hadn’t broken up with Annabeth. Was it cheating? 

Luke swiped the key card and pushed open their door. He turned the lights on one at a time. Then he went straight to the menu on the desk. “Get me some Mac n cheese, babe. I’m gonna take a shower.” Then he disappeared into the bathroom. 

Percy stared at the bathroom door. He really had to pee. There were bathrooms in the lobby though… First things first, Percy looked over the menu. He called the number using the hotel phone and ordered two Mac n cheeses, two slices of chocolate pie, and two coca-colas. Percy double checked that he had his room key in his pocket then almost ran back down to the lobby. He hurried into the bathroom at a speed walk, went to the first empty urinal, and had the best piss of his life. If they were going to drive most of the day tomorrow, Percy was going to have to have Luke stop. Bladder taken care of, and hands washed, Percy studied himself in the mirror. His hair was getting long and shaggy because he hadn’t cut it in nine months, and it was completely gray except for the ends. 

Percy walked back into the lobby and up to the front desk. “Do you have any scissors?” 

Joy hummed. “Well I can’t lend out our scissors but we sell some in our grooming kit, right over there.” She pointed to a little hole in the wall that was lined with products hanging from pegs. 

“Thanks,” Percy said. He got one of the grooming kits, figuring that it wouldn’t hurt to have more toiletries just in case, some shampoo that didn’t smell like strawberries, and a bunch of snacks. Then he took it all back to the front desk. “Can you break a hundred?” 

“Sure can!” She said with a smile. Joy rang up his purchases. The total was higher than Percy expected but they were at a hotel and the prices were inflated for ‘convenience.’ She bagged his items. “Have a good night.” 

“You too,” Percy said. He went back up to their room. The snacks he set on the desk for later. The kit, he opened up and took the scissors out of. 

Luke walked out of the bathroom a few moments later in a cloud of steam. He wore Percy’s hoodie. The hoodie went down to about mid thigh. His white blond hair was still damp but spiked up. “You get our food ordered?” 

“Yup,” Percy said. “It should be here in half an hour.” He gathered up his new toiletries and his backpack, then walked past Luke and into the bathroom. The tiny bottles of hotel shampoo and conditioner had been used by Luke already. That was fine. Percy striped down and got into the water. It still ran hot. He soaped himself up and stood beneath the spray for a few long minutes. It wasn’t ocean water but it felt pretty good regardless. When he got out, Percy willed his skin dry then pulled on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. “Hey, Luke!” 

“Yeah?” Luke called back. 

“Could you come here?” Percy clutched the scissors nervously with both hands. He unlocked the door for Luke. “Would you cut my hair? I want all the black out of it.” 

“Sure thing,” Luke said. He sat Percy on the toilet lid and put a towel over his shoulders. “How short do you want it?” 

“Dunno. Two or three inches?” Percy was never fussy with his hair but he was tired of looking like some emo kid from nine years ago and shorter hair was less maintenance. 

Luke stood in front of Percy and began to cut away the black in Percy’s hair. It felt like his youth, his identity falling away in damp curls to the floor. He was getting rid of Percy Jackson, one cut at a time. This wasn’t the first time that he felt like another person; he hadn’t felt normal since shattering himself in Tartarus. Percy wasn’t yet sure who he would be but he hoped that he would like the person. 

That was horrifically depressing to think about so Percy focused on the physical, which was always easier. He stared at Luke’s bare thighs. They were well-muscled, tanned, and totally smooth. Huh. That was weird. Maybe it was an athlete thing. Athletes shaved their body hair, right? 

“You probably don’t want to hear this,” Luke started, “but the gray is a good look on you.” He snipped away, hands in Percy’s hair, always careful not to nick him. 

“You’re right. I don’t want to hear it,” Percy snapped back. He remembered that Luke had scissors and Luke was doing him a favor. “I’m sorry. Thank you.” He wondered, in an absent sort of way, what was beneath the hoodie. Surely not boxers or boxer-briefs because the hemline was usually long on those kinds of underwear. 

Luke tipped Percy’s chin up ever so slightly. He didn’t rise to the bait or accept the apology. Was that maturity or perspective and how did Percy get it? 

More hair fell. It was smaller, just little bits of gray and black that made Percy’s nose itch. You’d think that Percy would know what kind of underwear Luke wore. They’d spent two weeks together, even showering together, but Luke didn’t peek at Percy and Percy was inclined to return the favor. Okay, now he was just spending too much time thinking about Luke’s underwear. 

“Alright,” Luke said. He pulled the towel from Percy’s shoulders, careful to avoid dropping the hairs on the floor. “Take a look.” 

Percy got up and looked in the mirror. He put his hands to his mouth in surprise. “I look like Thalia! Except with gray hair.” 

Luke gave Percy an uncertain smile. “It’s the only style I know how to do, unless you want it buzzed off.” He looked at the scissors as though contemplating whether he could use them to cut hair that short. 

Percy touched his gray hair in amazement. He felt like a different person and his head was lighter than it had been in months. “That’s okay. I like it like this.” The gray made his eyes almost luminescent. 

Luke’s smile was radiant. 

A knock sounded at the door. 

Luke lifted his face and scented the air. “That would be dinner,” he said and went to answer it. 

Percy cleaned up his cut hair as best he could without a broom or a vacuum. 

By the time he was done, Luke had the food set out on the table. “Is one of these pies for me?” He asked. 

“Well if you don’t want it, I’ll eat it,” Percy said. He couldn’t help but smile. The haircut had done him good. 

“Nope, this is mine and I am eating it.” Luke held the box containing his pie slice close to his chest. He gathered up the soda and dinner and retreated to one of the beds in a way that didn’t invite Percy to follow. Luke opened the box that held his Mac n cheese, speared some with his fork, and brought it to his mouth. He moaned. “Gods, I missed Mac n cheese almost as much as I missed sex.” 

Percy was startled into a laugh. He brought his food to the bed Luke hadn’t claimed and sat cross-legged. “I’d rather have the Mac n cheese,” Percy said, feeling out Luke’s reaction. 

“I’ll admit it’s a close second,” Luke conceded. After that, he fell silent and shoveled the cheesy noodles into his mouth. 

Percy ate slower than Luke. “Have you had sex since you’ve been back?” That wasn’t any of his business at all. Percy wasn’t even sure why he asked. Sex wasn’t really his thing. 

“Mmhm,” Luke said. He paused long enough to take a drink of the coke. Then he added, “How do you think I earned money to pay for the fare?” 

Completely unrelated to what Luke had said, Percy choked on his Mac n cheese. He took a drink of coke to wash it down. Then he actually thought about what Luke had said. He expected Luke to say gotcha or something to that effect but he didn’t. “I thought you stole it.” 

Luke’s smile was absolutely devilish. “I did.” 

Percy was lost. 

“I stole cash from their wallets while they were, ah, otherwise occupied.” Luke said this like it was a normal and rational thing to do. Like he hadn’t just admitted to being one of those guys who stole money from the people they had sex with. Those poor women probably never knew what hit them. Percy wasn’t sure they would exactly care, though. Women seemed to forgive Luke for everything he did. They probably thanked him afterwards. 

“Oh,” Percy said because he couldn’t think of a single thing else to say. He finished off his Mac n cheese. It had been pretty damn good, and filling. But he still had room for pie. Percy was disappointed by how small his slice of chocolate pie was, managing to eat it in three bites, and it tasted pretty generic. Well, you couldn’t win all of them. 

They used the takeout bag as a trash can. Percy grabbed the television remote and the guide and looked over it until he found a channel that might have something interesting on it. He pulled a pillow out, set it on the foot of his bed, and laid on his stomach. “Do you care what we watch?” Percy asked Luke. 

Luke had gotten beneath the covers and had both his pillows behind his back. “Not really.” He yawned. “I don’t normally watch tv.” 

“Me either,” Percy admitted. He flipped channels until he got to the Investigation Discovery channel. Murder and crime solving were popular with the kids at his boarding schools. Usually NCIS was on in the background while they were studying or goofing off. Percy had never actually watched the screen while it was on. He was about ten minutes into the episode when he remembered something. Percy twisted his head around to look at Luke. “Did you call me babe earlier?” 

Luke looked like he was hanging onto consciousness by a thread. His chin dipped towards his chest and his eyes were open to only the narrowest of slits. “Hmm...Maybe. Sorry if that upset you.” 

“You don’t remember?” Percy asked. He frowned. “And that isn’t how apologies work.” 

Luke wiggled down to get more comfortable. “Do I owe you an apology for that?” 

Percy thought about it. He didn’t think Luke meant it in a weird way and he did call Percy baby twice now. “I guess not. It’s just...unexpected.” 

Luke hummed. He sounded closer to sleep than before. His eyelids slid shut. “That’s me,” he mumbled. 

When Luke didn’t move again for a few long seconds, Percy decided he was probably asleep. He went back to watching TV. Shortly after that, though, his eyelids began to grow heavy and Percy laid his head on his pillow. He fell asleep without meaning to. 

Percy woke up an unknown amount of time later. He turned off the tv, put his pillow at the head of the bed, and got beneath the covers. He laid on his side, facing Luke, and then he closed his eyes and fell back into sleep.  
  
  


Over the course of two days, they drove another twelve hours to reach Michigan’s upper peninsula. There wasn’t any particular reason to go there; they were just going to go. Percy drove half of that. It turned out that being behind the wheel on the freeway was cathartic. The only thing he had to think about was driving. 

It took a day and a half for Luke’s voice to recover, to no longer be scratchy and used up. They had a little bit of ambrosia in a ziplock bag in Luke’s backpack but they were saving it for something life threatening. 

Percy hoped they would be able to get more but if he was being honest, he didn’t know where it came from in the first place. Who supplied demigods with nectar and ambrosia? Was it just through the Camp or could lone demigods get their hands on it? Did Percy even want to go that route, after declaring that he was done with the gods and their bullshit? 

Percy was driving again now. It was the dawn of day four and so far they hadn’t been found. They were driving parallel with a lake that Percy couldn’t remember the name of. It was too narrow where they were to remind him of the ocean. 

Luke slouched in the passenger seat, leaning against the door with one leg tossed over the back of the seat. It looked uncomfortable. He had an atlas opened in his lap. The atlas they’d picked up a couple of towns ago at a gas station that held hundreds of model cars for sale on the walls. 

“Are you looking for something?” Percy asked just to hear a voice that didn’t belong to the radio personalities. 

Luke didn’t answer for a full minute. Slowly he looked up. “What?” 

“Are you looking for something?” 

“Oh. Not really.” When Luke blushed, his scars turned white. 

Percy noticed this and asked, a little incredulously, “Are you reading an atlas for… _fun_?” 

Luke’s darkening blush made his scars look even whiter. “Maybe.” He adjusted the atlas so that it covered most of his face. 

“You’re a bigger dork than Annabeth,” Percy announced. 

Luke made use of the fact that the seats were bench style and jabbed his heel into Percy’s thigh. 

Percy smiled. He saw a sign for a town called Rapid River and exited the freeway. His butt was numb from spending so long sitting in the car. Percy found a parking spot outside the Dollar General and turned the engine off. 

Both of them got out of the car and stretched. Luke made a beeline for the building. He started collecting the brochures outside and took a few minutes to examine the bulletin board and newspapers. 

Percy followed the length of the sidewalk to stretch his legs. When he turned, walked back, and reached the doors, he said to Luke, “I’m going to go in.” 

Luke grunted as he flipped through brochures. He didn’t even look up. 

Percy wandered around the Dollar General, not looking for anything in particular. He got distracted by their CD display that featured the Top Hits of the past four years and some recently released albums. Should they get some CDs for the car? Did the car have a CD player? They’d been using the radio but the signal cut out in the more rural areas. It would be nice to avoid that. 

Luke slid his arms around Percy’s waist and rested his chin on Percy’s shoulder, like he had a few days ago when they decided to leave. “Good idea. We need some tunes.” 

“Tunes, he says, like an old man.” Percy scoffed. “You were born in the eighties.” He picked out a couple of CDs that looked appealing. 

Luke reached around him and picked out a few more, putting them into Percy’s hands. His chest pressed against Percy’s back was an unfamiliar but not entirely unwelcome feeling. He pulled away to gently turn Percy around so they were facing each other. “Let’s rough it tonight,” Luke suggested. His hoodie pocket was full of colorful brochures. 

“You want to spend _more_ time in the car?” Percy asked. He was under the impression that Luke liked the finer things in life; like not sleeping in cars. Although, it wasn’t like there wasn’t room in the car for both of them to stretch out. They could each take a bench seat. 

Luke thumbed through his brochures until he pulled out one that looked particularly nature-y. “Look,” he said as he opened it up and showed Percy a tiny map in the corner. “There’s this sightseeing spot in the national forest, which is like the next exit from here.” 

Percy squinted at the map, then stopped squinting because he felt like Jason when he did it. He most certainly did not need glasses. Most demigods didn’t; Jason Grace was the exception and that was about the only exceptional thing about him. Percy focused on the map again, then let his eyes roam over the colorful photographs of the national forest. He was about to say no when he realized that there wasn’t a good reason to say no. This was about running away, yes, but it was also about discovering himself. “Alright, I guess.” He met Luke’s eye. “Yeah! Let’s do it!” 

Luke’s returning smile was warm. “Let’s get a cart and we’ll get some supplies.” It turned out that Luke was as good at shopping as he was at packing. He led them up and down the aisles, putting what he deemed essentials into the cart. A small pack of toilet paper, a roll of paper towels, two thick blankets in blue and yellow, a cooler, a first aid kit, extra medical supplies and medications to stock the first aid kit to Luke’s standards, lip balm, sunscreen, and deodorant. 

“Is that for me?” Percy asked. 

“Yup,” Luke said. He threw in two pairs of flip flops, two towels, a pack of mints, and hand sanitizer. 

“I don’t get to pick out my own deodorant?” Percy asked. He felt that he should be somewhat offended. Maybe Luke was saying that he stank and his sense of smell was shit. Look, Percy had gone three days without deodorant but he’d also showered every night and it’s not like he was sweating while riding in the car. So maybe he should just shut up and let Luke get what they needed. 

Finally Luke found two flashlights, extra batteries, a small tool kit, a multi-tool, garbage bags, and lastly a notebook and pen. 

“Riptide is a pen,” Percy said as he watched Luke put it on top of their now very full cart. 

“Be that as it may, I thought you’d rather I _don’t_ go digging in your pockets,” Luke said with an impish smile. 

“Good point.” 

They waited in line behind two kids trying to buy an R rated movie. The kids looked like they were nine and ten; definitely too young for the movie. The cashier was having none of it, either. “You’ve got to be at least seventeen to buy this and I know for a fact that neither of you are. Now go home, girls.” She looked up and gestured for Luke and Percy to start putting their items on the conveyor belt. As she began to ring up their items, she made conversation with them. “You two from Michagan?” 

Luke shook his head. “Nah. My beloved cousin and I are from Alabama.” This was said with a slight accent that Percy didn’t quite recognize. 

That made her pause and look between the two of them. Her eyeshadow was hot pink and it matched her lips, which she pursed. Her name tag said Caroline. “Just visiting?” That was said in such a falsely polite tone that it was borderline rude. 

Percy answered this time. “Yeah.” He didn’t have the accent that Luke had, couldn’t even begin to replicate it without hearing more of it. He glanced at Luke. Caroline was acting weird and he didn’t like it. 

Luke smiled at him. He knocked their shoulders together briefly before returning his attention to the screen that displayed their total. “We’re putting his daddy’s car through her paces.” Luke swiped his black credit card. “That’s our darling out there.” He pointed out the window to their car, gleaming in the parking lot like a dream. 

Caroline craned her neck to see, which is why she didn’t notice Luke swipe a lighter from the display beside the register. “Oh! That looks like that car from the show!” Her expression cleared of suspicion. “Just like those brothers.” 

Luke put their items in the cart to be taken to the car. “Exactly like that.” He accepted the receipt and said “thank you.” 

“Have a nice trip, you two,” Caroline said as they walked out the door. 

“I think it should be illegal to name your kid after a state you don’t live in,” Percy decided as he popped the lid on the trunk. He helped Luke by tearing off the packaging and opening everything before handing items to Luke; because Luke was particular about how he organized their things. 

Luke laughed. “Caroline isn’t a state.” 

Percy smiled. He hadn’t heard a genuine laugh from Luke since...too long. “It’s close enough to Carolina. Literally one letter off.” They closed the trunk and Percy unclipped the keys from his belt. “Heads up.” He tossed the keys over the roof of the car. 

Luke caught them and slid into the driver's seat. He was stretching by the time Percy threw away their trash and got into the car. “We’ve gotta stop at the minimart we passed on the way in.” 

“Okay.” 

The minimart was nicer than the ones in New York. It looked like a big house. The parking lot was just dirt. The interior was clean. They got a pack of hot dogs, buns, chips, a watermelon, chocolate chip cookies, a case of water, and some canned tea and soda. “Riptide can cut this, right?” Luke asked as he set the watermelon into the cart. 

“Absolutely,” Percy confirmed. He liked the idea of using Riptide as a giant knife. If he and Annabeth could eat pizza off a shield, then Percy could use a sword to cut watermelon. 

Five times, they passed by a rack with striped sweaters and Luke kept looking at it like he wanted one. The sweaters came in purple, green, and brown. The fifth time they passed, Luke touched the purple one. 

Percy glanced at the size tag, then put it in the cart. He raised an eyebrow at Luke, daring him to say anything. Luke obviously wanted it even though it was ‘for’ women and as he had recently been dead, Percy didn’t get why Luke would deny himself a simple sweater. For fucks sake, the Romans wore purple. So Percy didn’t see why it was a big deal. 

Luke didn’t acknowledge it. 

They went to the checkout, paid, and loaded everything into the car. 

Luke popped a CD into the player. It was country, of course, because Luke was uncultured swine and didn’t appreciate hip hop like Percy did. He hummed along to the guitar chords and started singing a heartbeat before the vocals started. Luke tried, but he was no son of Apollo. 

They had to pay to enter the national forest so Percy forked over the cash. In return they got a sticker to put on the dashboard and were on their way. A sign warned not to feed the bears. 

The idea of meeting a wild bear was interesting to Percy. He wasn’t sure if Riptide would work on one. Not that it mattered; Percy could use his powers or his bare hands to kill anything that threatened them. Though…he really didn’t want to. “Do you think it’s weird that we haven’t run into any monsters?” 

Luke paused singing to give the question some thought. “When I was running with Thalia, we encountered monsters like once a week or so. So we’ve still got a few days before it gets weird. And I probably still smell like Tartarus.” 

Percy leaned over and sniffed, even though he knew that Luke didn’t smell like Tartarus. Tartarus smelled like Percy’s ex-stepdad, Gabe, and if Luke had smelled even the slightest bit like Gabe, Percy probably would have killed him in the Poseidon cabin. “You hardly even smell like the Underworld anymore.” 

Luke gave him an amused look. “Good to know.” He seemed to know exactly where he was going, and since he spent so damn long looking at the atlas and then the brochures, Percy assumed that he did. The road was lined with the kind of tall trees that lost their leaves in the autumn but for now were a brilliant green. Birds flitted from tree to tree in flashes of brown. They passed by a car going the opposite direction and came to a fork in the road. One sign pointed them to the campgrounds and the other to a scenic view. Luke chose the scenic view. 

The road got busier after that; if you could call passing two more cars ‘busy.’ They drove for another forty-five minutes. The spot that Luke took them to was incredible. It was an absolutely gorgeous lakeside called Pictured Rocks. 

“You ready for some hiking?” Luke asked. 

“Hell yes,” Percy said. “Get me out of this car.” 

They spent the day following trails, occasionally winding back to the car to replace an empty water bottle or reapply sunscreen. The trail was beautiful; lucious plants closed in on both sides, making a tunnel of green all around them. When they got close to the sandstone cliffs, they caught glimpses of the blue lake. There were some other people on the trails, people who said hi breathlessly as they passed and people who walked with them and made small talk. 

Percy wasn’t sure they should be talking to other people but these were mortals and it would probably leave more of an impression if they weren’t friendly. 

Luke’s glamor flickered on and off as they encountered people and left them. Manipulating the Mist for long periods of time was exhausting; so was manipulating it for short bursts every five minutes. He got tired faster, though he tried not to show it. He downed water bottle after water bottle, snacked two of the three times they returned to the car, and was quick to agree to pausing frequently to look at the scenery. 

Percy thought about saying something, but unfortunately he understood the need for Luke’s glamour. Luke had a strikingly handsome face to begin with, but add in those distinct scars and anyone would be able to track them down. So he watched Luke from the corner of his eye and when he saw the sweat roll down Luke's face, Percy stopped to look at the scenery or tie his shoes or take a drink. Outside of Camp Half-Blood, they only had each other and needed to look out for each other. 

After they had hiked several miles and made their way back to the car, they had lunch. 

Luke produced a lighter and made a small fire to cook the hotdogs over. 

Percy cut the watermelon with Riptide. It was as fun as he’d hoped it would be. 

They sat on boulders and ate their lunch. “I wonder why Mr. D chose strawberries. There are other fruits that grow on the vine.” Percy took a bite of watermelon. 

“Can’t make jam or pies out of watermelon,” Luke said. He took a sip of his coke and then a big bite of hotdog. 

“Maybe not, but think of all the camp-related watermelon activities,” Percy pointed out. 

“Imagine being the kid to get a concussion because someone lobbed a watermelon at your head.” 

They both laughed at that. 

“It would probably be me,” Percy said between boughs of laughter. He dropped his half eaten slice of watermelon in the dirt. “Aw.” 

Luke handed Percy another slice. “In all seriousness, the point of growing fruit is to sell it. The Camp needs money because the patrons won’t actually fund anything.” 

Percy accepted the watermelon. Hiking had worked up his appetite. He chewed on the fruit while he thought of his answer. Dredging up the gods' faults seemed like asking for trouble. “Maybe not a watermelon pie but surely a watermelon cake.” 

Luke rolled his eyes. “They don’t make watermelon desserts.” He added, “except smoothies.” 

“I’ve seen cakes that look like watermelon.” 

“They’re just dyed to look like that. Or they’re strawberry cake with dyed green frosting.” 

“You are such a killjoy.” 

Luke rolled his eyes. “Wanna go down to the water?” 

Percy was...apprehensive about the water. He almost drowned twice now; something he hadn’t known he was able to do. It scared him. _He_ scared himself. Still, he found himself nodding in agreement. 

They packed up their picnic, snuffed out the fire, and went to find a road closer to the water. 

Luke didn’t ask Percy to swim in it. Just rolled up his pant legs and wadded on the shore. They found some cool rocks and watched the minnows darting around the shallows. 

Percy actually had a good time. He wasn’t even bothered by the lake’s spirit.  
  
  


They found a secluded place to park the car for the night. Luke turned off the engine, left the key hanging in the ignition. Trees surrounded them on two sides, the lake was in front of them, and there wasn’t a sign of civilization except the road behind them. When they were in hotels, they usually watched TV before falling asleep. They didn’t have such luxuries now but they did get a show of a different kind. 

Thunder tumbled overhead like a big dog growling. Clouds covered the moon. It wasn’t dark, though, because every couple of minutes lightning cracked over the lake. Jagged violet spears of light that lit up the world in flashes before disappearing again. Rain came down steadily, pinging off the metal roof of the car. 

For a while they both just looked out the windshield at the storm and admired it. There was no tension here; this wasn’t a storm brought on by Zeus’ rage or a threat against their persons. It was just a storm. And it was beautiful. 

Luke broke the silence between them to say, “We should get our stuff out of the trunk before the storm gets worse.” 

Percy nodded agreement. 

They didn’t run for the trunk, as might be expected. The rain fell cold and began to soak through Percy’s hair. He didn’t mind. It would be simple enough to dry them both off. 

When wet, Luke’s hair darkened a few shades. He grabbed his pillow, blanket, and duffel bag. 

Percy did the same and then closed the trunk. When he got back in the car, Luke was already there. He closed the door to block out the rain and willed the car’s interior dry. Then he reached across the bench seat to touch Luke. “Here.” He willed Luke and the things Luke still held to dry instantly. 

Luke patted himself to see that he really was dry, then smiled. “Thanks.” He took off his shoes then pulled his sweater over his head. 

It wasn’t until Luke reached for the button on his jeans did Percy realize what Luke was doing and averted his eyes. Percy striped out of his clothes too. With the storm, it was too cold to sleep in his boxers so he opted for the pajamas he’d packed. He left his dirty clothes on the floor of the car, since neither of them had thought to grab the laundry bag. 

Luke opted for Percy’s hoodie and left his long legs bare. He leaned back in the seat and looked out the window. One leg was up, knee resting against the steering wheel. “This was a good night for it.” 

“Yeah.” Percy glanced out the windshield at the storm. It was beautiful and the rain was the best sort of mood music. Mood for what, Percy wasn’t sure; but it felt intimate and Percy thought that maybe that was a good thing. “Do you want front or back?” 

For a split second, Luke looked taken aback. Then it clicked and Luke shrugged. “Wherever is fine. The steering wheel will probably be a bitch if you move a lot.” 

Percy put his pillow behind him so that he could lean against the door comfortably. “I’m okay with whatever sleeping arrangements.” 

Luke snorted. “So formal.” He smiled, suddenly, impishly. He threw his pillow onto Percy and then flopped down, head resting against Percy’s ribs. “Well in that case.” 

Percy suddenly didn’t know what to do with his limbs. Should he kick Luke off? Should he literally kick Luke? No. It was just play. Right? Did people normally lay on each other? He was frozen with indecision for a moment until he figured out how to spread his legs so that Luke could fit between them comfortably. 

“You know what we need?” Luke said after a long silence. “A song. Now let me think…” 

“You sound like the sun god,” Percy said. His hands were hovering awkwardly. What was he supposed to do with them? What if Luke got mad...but Luke never shied away from physical contact between them. Percy laid his hands on Luke’s shoulders. It felt wrong. When Annabeth laid on him, he liked to run his hands through her hair. Luke’s hair was much shorter and there weren’t any romantic feelings but maybe he would be okay with that… Until Percy put one hand in Luke’s curls, he hadn’t realized that this would be the first time he’d actually touched Luke’s hair. 

Luke’s curls were soft and oddly smooth beneath Percy’s palm. They were cool to the touch, except where the hood of the hoodie met the back of Luke’s head. Percy didn’t dip his fingers beneath the hood because he could feel the heat and exploring it felt like too much. So Percy started at Luke’s temple and stroked backwards, marveling again at how soft it was. Luke’s hair felt like it was made to be pet. 

Under Percy’s hand, Luke relaxed all at once; shoulders dropping and letting his weight fully rest on Percy. He hummed a bit. “How dare you insult me like that.” Then he began to sing: “I don’t want to spend another lonely night.” Luke hummed the _ooooh_ part rather than singing it. Before Percy could get a jibe in, he continued, “I’ve got the lights turned up, the door is locked / the bedroom tv’s on / doin the only thing that gets me through / the night since you’ve been gone.” 

Percy really liked petting Luke. He liked listening to Luke sing, too. Even if Luke did somehow manage to turn an upbeat song into a sad one. 

“Prayin' for daylight / waitin' for that mornin' sun / so I can act like my whole life ain't goin' wrong / baby come back to me / I swear I'll make it right / don't make me spend another lonely night / prayin' for daylight.” Luke’s eyes were closed as he sang. He slid his arms around Percy’s waist, let them settle at the natural dip on the small of Percy’s back. It was a good thing they hadn’t been on touching terms while Percy was still invincible, otherwise Luke would know in a heartbeat where Percy’s most vulnerable spot was. 

Percy’s heartbeat quickened with the memory but he told himself he was fine. He could be killed anywhere now, not just that spot. It still made him break into goosebumps but they were less intense goosebumps, if there was such a thing. Duckbumps? No, that sounded stupid. 

“I made a bad miscalculation, bettin' / you would never leave / 'cause if you're gettin' on with your new life / then where does that leave me? / prayin' for daylight / waitin' for that mornin' sun / so I can act like my whole / life ain't goin' wrong.” The verse dissolved back into the chorus. Luke’s thumb ran along the bumps of Percy’s vertebrae. 

Luke’s voice was at once calming and aggravating. Every time he spoke, the timbre of his voice made Percy feel both safe and vulnerable at once. No matter how long had passed, Percy still remembered that first golden week of Camp Half-Blood where Luke was his best friend. It was tainted, of course, by the events at the end of the summer; when Luke tried to kill Percy. 

“Hopin' that I didn't wait too long / but this is just the dark before the dawn / deep in my heart I know that you love me / as much as I love you / and that you must be lyin' somewhere / lookin' up to heaven too.” 

Then it was just the sounds of rain, which was louder, and thunder, which seemed to have quieted some. Percy’s hand stilled near the heat at the back of Luke’s head. The moment felt charged, like the second before a storm broke. This was the first time that they were completely and utterly alone; with nobody on the other side of a wall or in the next cabin ten feet away. “Why were you in my cabin, Luke?” Percy asked softly. 

Luke gave a long, tired sigh. “Dad suggested it.” 

“Her-” 

Luke cut Percy off by placing a finger against his lips. “Don’t say his name.” His expression softened. “You still haven’t learned how much power names have.” 

“I don’t normally care,” Percy admitted. He was interested in the way that his lips moved against the pad of Luke’s finger. “Why me?” 

Luke settled down again. “He said _‘Percy has always been good for you and I think he’s at the end of his rope, so I’ll send you to Camp Half-Blood. Stay in his cabin so that no one smells you and wait for him.’”_ Luke’s voice returned to normal, “So I did.” 

It was satisfying to know that he was right about divine intervention bringing them together again. So Percy asked his next most pressing question, “Are you wearing anything beneath that hoodie?” 

Luke’s laugh held an edge of tension. “Yes.” 

“Just wondering,” Percy muttered. His face flushed hot. Maybe that was too personal of a question. 

“If they find us, are you going to go back?” Luke asked. 

Percy bit his lip and looked out the windshield into the darkness beyond. He took his time to think about and answer Luke’s question. Would he ever go back? Would all it take is a request from a friend and he comes running back like _just kidding everyone?_ Percy closed his eyes and breathed in through his open mouth. The car smelled like them, everything smelled like him and Luke. Percy liked it. He could get used to their intermingling scents. “I’m going to do my damnedest not to.” 

“Even if Annabeth asked you to?” There was something in Luke’s tone like his question had a different meaning. 

Percy let out a short, hard laugh that sounded like a bark. “Annabeth wouldn’t ask. She’d knock me out, drag me back to Camp, and I’d wake up in the basement of the Big House chained to the wall.” 

Luke’s shoulders stiffened and he propped himself up to see Percy’s face. “You’re being serious, aren’t you?” 

Percy’s mouth was dry. He nodded. Annabeth’s treatment of him was something he hardly paused to think about because he knew if he did, then he wouldn’t like it. But now it was just him and Luke and this was something they could keep between them. “I think I was with her because everyone expected me to be.” 

Luke’s brows drew together. 

“And she says stuff like _‘I’m never letting you go’ and ‘you can’t get away from me that easily.’_ Coming from her, it...isn’t sweet. It’s a threat.” Percy had never said those words out loud. Annabeth threatened him, a lot. Usually with violence. In a life where he couldn’t get away from violence, where everything from games to going for a walk has the potential to end in violence and death, it didn’t feel like much. It felt _normal._ Then Tartarus happened, and the war, and Luke showed up like...like the complete opposite of all that. Since being back, Luke hadn’t said or done anything to intentionally hurt Percy. He was like sleeping on a bed in a house compared to sleeping on concrete in an alleyway; soft, comfortable, safe, familiar, warm. Percy pushed Luke’s head back down before Luke saw the tears tracking down his cheeks. 

Luke made a half-hearted noise of protest. He rubbed his thumbs more firmly into Percy’s spine. But he kept his head down. “I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with that.” 

Percy hesitated, then decided that he should just throw it out there. “She doesn’t take no for an answer.” A pause, a few heartbeats to force the words out of his mouth. “When I told her that I’m...I’m not really interested in sex, she…” Percy swallowed. “She shoved her hand down my pants and...until I…and said _‘obviously I’m the exception to the rule._ ’” Just thinking about the incident made Percy’s limbs cold with panic, like ice water had replaced his blood. 

Luke went still. He wasn’t even breathing. After several long minutes of silence, Luke exhaled slowly. “Do you want me to move?” 

Percy wasn’t sure what he expected but that wasn’t it. He was dizzy and realized he’d been holding his breath. He said, “Are you going to molest me?” 

“No.” Luke sounded sincere. 

“Then no.” Percy pet Luke again, for something to do with his hands and to calm them both down. “I made things awkward.” 

“No. I’m glad you told me.” Luke relaxed in increments. After a few moments he started up with his hands again, rubbing over the spot Percy had been mortal. “I’m sorry, Percy.” 

“For what?” Fresh tears rolled down Percy’s cheeks. gods, this wasn’t how he thought tonight would go. They hadn’t talked about the deep stuff yet. Not really. 

“For everything I did to hurt you. For abandoning you and joining Kronos.” 

Percy cut Luke off. “I don’t care about Kronos or the gods. This was always personal. Because you were my only friend, the only person who treated me like a human, and then you betrayed me and,” Percy lowered his voice. “It _still hurts._ ” He rubbed at his wet face with his pajama sleeve. 

Luke sat up. He cupped Percy's face with his hands, looking into his eyes. “I’m so sorry, baby.” He leaned forward and kissed Percy’s forehead. “If I could take it back, I would. I’ve never regretted anything more in my life.” 

Percy’s hands shook when he curled his fingers around Luke’s wrists. If they were in love, this was where they would kiss and Percy would tell Luke that all was forgiven. “Why?” His voice came out like a squeak. 

“I was stupid. My master...when the shoes didn’t work, he…” Luke took a deep breath. “He said that I was a failure and needed to be punished. That I had to kill you myself. And I genuinely thought it would be better if you weren’t around. I thought you were the hero and if you were going to die anyway...it might as well be fast. But then I saw the look on your face and I had to bail.” Luke said all of this quietly, face only inches from Percy’s. He pressed their foreheads together. “When you came on board the Princess Andromeda, I spent all night trying to figure out what to do with you.” 

Percy’s mind was reeling with the new information. He needed time to think about that. “You let us escape,” Percy remembered. That was the first time. It wasn’t the last. 

“I saw your hands shaking,” Luke whispered. “And your eyes gave you away. No problem looking at those twin giants but the second you looked at me… I don't expect you to forgive me but you deserve an apology at the very least.” 

Fresh tears rolled down Percy’s cheeks. No one had ever apologized to Percy for anything, ever. Some of them made it a point not to. “I feel too much,” Percy tried to explain because there was no hiding the tears now. His voice was hoarse, like he had been yelling for hours. 

Luke kissed Percy’s forehead again. “You want me to sing for you again?” 

Percy laughed, wet and broken. He slipped his arms around Luke’s neck, pressed his face into Luke’s shoulder, and said, “Yeah. I like hearing you sing.” 

Luke’s jaw shifted when he smiled. He sang another sad country song and let Percy cry into his shoulder.  
  
  


For a few moments after he woke up, Percy couldn’t understand why he was looking at the roof of the car. His body was stiff and he felt hollow. The hollowness, at least, was familiar. He always felt this way after a good cry. Percy rubbed the grit out of his eyes and sat up. 

Luke was in the back seat, feet on the door because he was just a smidge too tall to fit comfortably. The blanket covered all of his long legs except for his feet. He was asleep. 

Percy decided to let him sleep. He slipped his shoes on and got out of the car. He found a good spot to piss on the ground away from the car or any trees that might actually be nymphs. Then he wandered back to the car and opened the trunk to get to the cooler. Percy got a water bottle. He used half the water to wash his hands and the other half to drink. Then he picked at the leftover watermelon, sitting on the edge of the trunk while he ate. 

While he waited for Luke to get up, Percy tried to relax. It should have been easy. He was in a beautiful place and had absolutely no responsibilities. It was a lovely morning; the ground was still damp and everything smelled fresh and clean and naturey. The trees filtered out the sunlight, dappling the ground in shades of green in some spots and letting in golden shafts of light in others. The storm clouds seemed to have cleared up overnight, leaving only a few wispy white clouds. Birds sang in the trees. There wasn’t a growl to be heard, no scent of monsters - or demigods - in the air. 

_You deserve to relax,_ Percy told himself. He knew he did. He knew that he deserved this early retirement. But Percy hadn’t been able to relax for more than a few days at a time for _six years_. His brain was telling him that it was time for trouble. 

Sometime later, the car door opened. “You alive, Percy?” Luke called. 

“I’m alive,” Percy said. 

“Great.” Quieter, Luke said, “I need to piss.” A few minutes later, Luke joined Percy at the trunk. He washed his hands and dug in the cooler for breakfast. “Should have bought more food.” Luke was wearing his jeans from the night before. 

“Are we leaving today?” Percy asked. 

Luke glanced at Percy and then nodded. He came up with a half a bag of chips and leaned beside Percy while he ate them. “Do you want to stay in the States or go up to Canada?” 

“The States, for now.” Percy never went sightseeing, never visited tourist traps or national parks or theme parks. When he traveled it was for business, not pleasure. He wanted to see the country he lived in and when he was done with that, they could cross borders. 

“Alright. When we find a town, we’ll restock the cooler and get more ice.” Luke tipped his head thoughtfully. “Unless ice is one of your powers?” 

“Not really,” Percy answered. “Unless you want a snow storm.” 

“I’ve gotta pass on that one.” Luke finished eating his chips and put the empty bag in their trash bag. He closed the trunk. “You ready?” 

“Yup,” Percy agreed. He headed for the passenger door. He preferred to drive in cities rather than in the countryside. If they hit a deer, Percy didn’t think he could handle it. Both the emotional toll and the logistics of crashing; because Percy was sure that if you hit something that weighed more than a hundred pounds, it was going to fuck up the car. 

Luke seemed happy enough to drive. He tossed everything into the back seat before turning the car on. Then he popped a new CD into the player. Carrie Underwood’s voice drifted from the speakers. 

They didn’t go out the same way they came in. The drive felt longer. Percy’s eyelids felt heavy. He kept nodding off, chin dipping towards his chest only for him to jerk awake. It didn’t make sense; they’d literally just woken up and now Percy was ready for a nap. Maybe it was Carrie Underwood’s voice lulling him back to sleep. 

After an hour of this, Luke said, “Get in the back, Percy. Take a nap.” 

Percy grunted. He unbuckled his seatbelt, slipped out of his shoes, and crawled into the back seat. Their blankets and pillows were still there, so Percy made a nest of them. As soon as he was comfortable, Percy fell asleep.  
  
  


When Percy woke again, he was alone in the car. The car was in a parking lot outside of a small pink building. The building did not have a sign and the windows were blacked out. There were no other buildings around as far as Percy could see, and only one other car in the parking lot. 

Luke leaned against the building, nodding his head as he listened to the man beside him talk. 

The man had a cigarette in one hand and was gesturing with it often. He had four facial piercings and a scar on his lip. His skin was black as midnight, which only made his tattoos glow all the brighter. 

Percy got out of the car. 

They both looked at him. 

The wind carried the smell of the cigarette to Percy but beneath that was something Percy recognized: demigod. He stood by Luke, where the smoke didn’t bother him so much. “Where are we?” 

“Minnesota,” the demigod answered. He took a drag off his cigarette, and gave Percy a once-over. “I’m Dimeka, son of the love goddess. Who dyed your hair?” 

“Nice to meet you. My hair was dyed by trauma.” Percy didn’t want to leave more of a trail than necessary. He looked at Luke for some direction. Now that he was closer to Luke, he noticed that Luke’s hair stood on end and he smelled...like sex. Percy wrinkled his nose. He wanted to leave. 

Dimeka made a sympathetic noise. “You Greeks are so dramatic.” 

“You’ve been out for eight hours, babe,” Luke said. 

Percy curled his lip, showing off a canine in annoyance. What did he mean by calling them Greeks? Was Dimeka a Roman? He didn’t have a SPQR tattoo like Percy did. “Why are we here?” He gestured to the pink building. 

Luke didn’t bat an eyelash at Percy’s annoyance. “Had to pick some stuff up.” 

Percy gave the building a dubious look. “Does _stuff_ include food?” 

Dimeka laughed. 

Luke smiled. He looked...different. Like he was carrying around less tension. “That’s the next stop.” He looked at Dimeka. “Do you know anywhere good to eat around here?” 

“Sure, sure. My grandma’s got a little rib shop in the city. Best damn ribs in the state,” Dimeka said and told them the name of the restaurant. He dropped the cigarette butt in the dirt and snuffed it out with his boot. 

The action drew Percy’s attention back to the tattoos on Dimeka’s arms. They glowed pink like neon signs. The tattoos were a mix of naked men and women, of Greek monsters, of creatures that Percy didn’t recognize, and of a small little spider. 

Dimeka caught him looking. “That’s Anansi, the spider god. My great-grandfather by five generations.” 

Despite himself, Percy was interested. “You’re a demigod _and_ a legacy?” 

Dimeka nodded. 

“Is...is the spider god like our gods?” Dimeka might not have a problem invoking the names of the gods, but Percy didn’t want to risk it. He wasn’t sure how much the Greek gods interacted with other gods. 

“Different gods, different rules. I can’t say my mother’s name without her popping up in my business but Ananasi is too busy to concern himself every time someone says his name.” 

“What if you need him?” 

Dimeka shrugged. “Then you ask for his help.” 

“Well, shit,” Percy muttered. That was a damned better deal than what the Greeks had. “How are they glowing?” 

Dimeka pulled a wallet from his pocket and produced a business card. “Daughter of that witch Titaness. She makes her own inks infused with Mist. Looks plain to mortals but everyone else sees the glow.” 

Percy took the card from him. It was shiny black with neon green lettering that proclaimed the name of the artist, the shop name, and the address. 

“You wanna get a tattoo after dinner?” Luke asked. “She takes walkins.” 

“Maybe,” Percy muttered. He looked at the black tattoo on his wrist, forever branding him as belonging to the Roman army. He glanced at Dimeka’s tattoos again. It would be cool to have a tattoo he actually wanted. “Thanks, man.” He tucked the business card into his pocket. 

After that, they said goodbye and got back in the car. Percy watched the building from the side mirror until they turned a corner and it disappeared from view. 

As they got back onto the main road, Luke asked, “So are you pissed cause you’re hungry or are you pissed cause I fucked him?” 

Percy stared out his window. His face was hot. “Why would I be pissed that you fucked him? You can do whatever you want.” They were pretty words, the correct words to say, but they did nothing for the knot in Percy’s gut. Yes, he was pissed, but he shouldn’t be. It was for such a stupid reason. 

Luke went _mmhmm_ like he didn’t believe a word out of Percy’s mouth. Which, fair. But it was also annoying. “I guess I had to tell you eventually. I’m gay and if that’s a problem for you, then we should split up now. Or, you know, when we get to town and I can buy a new car.” 

Percy was so stunned that he laughed. Then he slapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh my gods I am so sorry I didn’t mean to laugh,” he said in a rush. “I don’t care that you’re gay. It’s...just that you...smell wrong. You don’t smell like us.” 

Luke was quiet for a long few minutes. Then he went “oh.” Kind of confused. Then, “oooh” like he had a revelation. Followed by a softer “ooh” like he just realized something. “I’ll take a shower when we find a place.” 

Percy drew his legs up to his chest and hugged them. He hid his face in his knees. “Thanks,” he muttered. His face was hot with embarrassment. Was he being unreasonable? Percy didn’t _think_ so, but it was hard to tell. Annabeth’s sense of smell was so awful that she never knew if he’d been around anyone else, let alone if they were a demigod or not. She couldn’t even smell monsters unless they were right in front of her. “I don’t want to split up. And I don’t have a problem with you being gay.” 

Luke’s sigh of relief was almost covered by Kenny Chesney’s guitar solo. They drove for a little over an hour before reaching the city that Dimeka’s grandma worked in. Luke took the roads like he’d lived there his whole life. Soon they were parked in front of a small building. 

The building looked friendly, with a red roof and huge pots of flowers. There was a line wrapped around the building and halfway down the block. Customers who had already got their food sat at picnic tables out front. 

Percy’s stomach growled. He could smell the ribs even in the car. “We better get in line,” he said. 

They parked the car and got in line. The line went faster than Percy expected and by the time they were almost to the front, more people had come to make the line long again. That spoke good things of the food. 

Percy and Luke got a plate of ribs to share and big glasses of sweet tea. The ribs were supernaturally good; as good as Medusa’s cooking was. Maybe Dimeka’s grandmother was just a good cook; maybe she got the skill from Anansi; either way, Percy was very impressed. 

Between the two of them, they picked the ribs clean until all that was left was a pile of bones in the basket. The sun was inching towards the western horizon. 

Percy took out the business card Dimeka had given them. “Do you think we have time to go see,” he squinted at the name. “Ariana?” 

Luke gave a put upon sigh but he was smiling. “Sure.” He threw away their trash then returned the empty cups and basket to the restaurant.  
  
  


The daughter of Hecate was called Ariana. She had brown skin and short, spiky black hair. When they entered her store, she didn’t look surprised to see them. “Well it’s about time.” 

Percy blinked in confusion. 

“Dimeka called,” she said with a smile. There was a tinkling noise every time she moved; bells around her ankle. “Do you two know what you want?” 

“Um,” Percy said. 

“Yes,” Luke said. He moved over to the counter and began to tell Ariana what he wanted. 

Percy was curious but he was more interested in the shop. The whole shop was painted a deep violet and accented with gold and silver. There were paintings on the walls; of candles and stars and people and the silhouettes of monsters. A plaque on the wall said that she opened the shop twenty years ago. Newspaper clippings and article printouts proclaimed that her apprentices were the best artists in the country. 

There were photo albums full of Ariana’s work, of the tattoos she’d done. Some of them were normal but others were glowing or glittery or moved across the skin. Percy watched a cloud produce lightning that looked different with every strike. He saw black and white fish chase each other in an endless circle. He saw the moon go through its phases. There were glowing runes and the symbols of different gods. After flipping through the book, it became clear that Ariana’s skills were phenomenal. 

Percy was beginning to get an idea of what he wanted. He wandered back to the counter. 

Ariana was bent over a sketchbook. With a few quick strokes, she had drawn out the design. 

“Do you take, um, Express cards?” Luke asked, holding up the black card so that she could see it. 

Ariana raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time, but yeah. I sure do.” She dropped her attention back to the sketch. “How did you get one?” 

“I’m his son.” 

Ariana looked up at him again and cocked her head. “Alabaster came in here about six months ago. He mentioned the son of the messenger god with the scar on his face. You seem to have more than _a_ scar on your face and you don’t look dead.” 

“Alabaster made it?” Luke asked. 

Ariana pursed her lips. “He’s about the only one who did. That side lost hundreds of demigods. Something about the sea god spawn.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m too old for that shit.” 

Percy wondered if coming here was a mistake. Would she let them leave without a fight? Just because Ariana used her magic for making art, didn’t mean she couldn’t use it for fighting too. 

“Relax, guppy,” Ariana said. “I don’t have a stake in it either way. You get out of your teens and the powers that be usually leave you alone. Especially if you’re good at something they like.” She gestured to her store with the pencil in her hand. 

“You won’t tell anyone that you met us, will you?” Percy asked. Could he drown her before she attacked them? 

Ariana handed Percy a stack of business cards. “Not if you hand these out.” She winked at him. 

Percy took the cards and slipped them into the pocket of his cargo shorts. “Deal.” He relaxed a little. 

“Did you decide what you want?” Ariana asked. She finished Luke’s sketch and flipped to a clean paper. 

Percy nodded and told her.  
  
  


Ten hours later, Percy watched the black pegasus fly across his skin. He was amazed by the quality of the work; it looked just like a tiny Blackjack. Ariana was an incredible artist and Percy would be giving out her business cards like mad; to mortals and demigods alike. 

The bathroom door opened and Luke came out in a cloud of steam. He went straight to Percy’s bed, crawled up and watched the pegasus soar across Percy’s bare stomach. This was the first time in three weeks that he wasn’t wearing Percy’s hoodie. Luke wore the sweater from the store. It softened the blue of his eyes. He kneeled on the bed, his hands pressing the sweater between his legs. The sweater wasn’t as long as Percy’s hoodie had been; it barely covered Luke’s ass. 

Percy dragged his eyes up to Luke’s face. “Will you please tell me what you’re wearing under there?” 

“Underwear, Percy.” Luke’s face turned red. He squirmed and his shoulders rose with tension. 

Percy narrowed his eyes but decided not to press the issue. “How’s the tattoo?” He asked instead. 

The change in Luke made Percy feel guilty. He instantly relaxed and shifted to show Percy his leg. The daisy tattoos were full color, a curve that followed Luke’s ankle bone. It looked like a laurel made of daisies. In the middle was May’s name in neat, clear handwriting. The whole thing glowed a faint white. That was the only tattoo he got. It was already mostly healed. “How are yours?” 

Percy twisted his wrist to show off a glowing sprig of moonlace. He couldn’t look at the plant without thinking of both Calypso and his mother. Calypso gave him the cutting but it was Sally Jackson who kept it alive and thriving. “I think they’re healed.” 

“The only bonus of being a demigod,” Luke agreed. He swatted at Percy’s knee. “Scooch yourself over.” 

Percy scooted over, bringing his pillow with him. 

Luke grabbed three pillows off the other bed and got under the covers in Percy’s bed. He propped himself up and turned the TV on. He flipped to a nature documentary. 

Percy watched this with interest and some bewilderment. They consistently got two beds and hadn’t shared since the short nap when Luke first arrived. 

He was trying to decide if it really mattered when Luke spoke up, “I know it bothered you that I didn’t smell like us, so I figured I’ll chill with you for a bit before bed.” 

Percy’s face turned red. “I’m sorry about that. I...I don’t know why it matters.” 

Luke’s face didn’t turn away from the TV but he glanced at Percy from the corner of his eye. “Your sense of smell is strong.” He hesitated, like he wanted to say more. “And you...know me by scent, don’t you?” 

Percy felt his blush spread down to his chest. He gripped a pillow to his chest. He could deny it, but there didn’t seem to be a point. “Yeah. I do,” he said quietly. Louder, he said, “When, um, you know who, possessed you, you stopped smelling like you.” 

Luke made a face. He reached for his neck and then dropped his hand to his lap and wrung both hands together. “That’s a small miracle,” he muttered. 

Percy nodded. He watched the tv screen where a crocodile pulled a zebra into a death roll. “The first time I boarded the Princess Andromeda, I could smell you.” 

Luke nodded. He didn’t look surprised. “That time at the museum, when you had Annabeth’s cap on? I could smell you then.” 

Percy nodded. He wasn’t surprised. His heartbeat quickened and he had butterflies in his stomach. Percy didn’t know why the conversation felt so intimate, like a confession; but he didn’t know what he was confessing to. 

They focused on the TV. The documentary covered crocodiles, Cape buffalo, hippopotamuses, leopards, and hyenas. The infighting and hunting were brutal. Wounds that looked small were crippling. Percy was quietly glad that he was in the States because he didn’t need more things trying to kill him. He could handle a moose or a pack of wolves but an entire herd of Cape buffalo? Nope. Absolutely not. Not without being invincible. 

Luke was asleep the next time Percy looked over, chin tucked against his chest and fingers still curled around the remote. Driving seemed to wear him out and Luke had been awake for a lot longer than Percy. 

Tomorrow, Percy would drive. He yawned and decided Luke had the right idea. Carefully, he plucked the remote from Luke’s grasp and turned the TV off. He got up and turned off all of the lights in their room. Then Percy stood in the dark, debating with himself. Finally, he climbed back into bed beside Luke and pulled the covers up to his chin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said that I would only upload once a month, I thought that it would be easier than uploading once a week. And yes, it has given me more time to write the next chapters. But it also means that I have to wait to let everyone read each chapter and it _kills_ me because this is the best thing I’ve ever written. I’m currently working on chapter 8 and the word count is at 100k so when I said that this is a slow burn, _I meant it._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Luke visit a few festivals and meet some wild horses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vote for Biden. 
> 
> Songs Luke sings: [Unbelievable by Rascal Flatts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHg4w1d6ZYE&list=PLnpyweA7d5-7lbPS47yWPitJyytq6E_Da&index=388) and [Two Pina Coladas by Garth Brooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tC-1hUzpJs).
> 
> There are some American Gods (Neil Gaimen) spoilers here so if you haven't read/watched it and don't want to be spoiled...uh...go do that then come back?

### “The concept of time, as it’s commonly understood by normal people with normal jobs and normal goddamn lives, doesn’t exist on the road. The nights spread out like the dark, godforsaken highways that distinguish them, and the days run together like Thanksgiving dinner smothered in gravy. You never really know where you are or what time it is, and the outside world starts to fade away. It’s cool.” ― Tiffanie DeBartolo, How to Kill a Rock Star 

The thing about hotel rooms was that they all more or less looked the same. The same beige walls, the same ugly paintings, the same dull carpet, the same thin white sheets, the same dresser/tv stand. If you’ve been in one, then you’ve been in all of them. The roads looked more or less the same too, with the same couple of gas stations, hotels, and restaurants beside them. Their collection of CDs grew so much that they had to buy a binder and even still, it felt like the CDs were multiplying while they weren’t looking. 

Luke and Percy had been on the road for three weeks. Three weeks in and out of hotel rooms, three weeks of driving on backroads. Percy didn’t know where they were. Luke knew, but Percy didn’t ask him and Percy didn’t read the road signs. They were anywhere, they were everywhere. 

When the cool forests gave way to windy plains, Percy had the idea that they were somewhere in the middle of the country. Endless rolling hills, golden seas of grass, so far from the oceans and lakes. This was a land of rivers and ponds. It was farmland but not orchards, and so many cows on the other sides of barbed wire fences that didn’t look strong enough to keep those massive animals contained. They couldn’t go twenty miles without passing by a church or a bar. 

The evening storms were epic. Not rainy so much as thunder and lightning. They spent a night in the car parked by a field of wheat. It was much like the night they’d spent in Michigan their first week except the air was even more charged. 

Things between Percy and Luke were always charged now. Percy felt light and aching and thrummed with energy. The feeling chased him, hounded him like a dog biting his heels. 

Luke was waiting again, like he’d been waiting at Percy’s cabin. He was always waiting on Percy; it was the story of their lives. He sat in the passenger seat now, leg bouncing, wiping his palms along his denim-clad thighs. Reba Macentire sang from their speakers and for once Luke didn’t sing along. 

Lightning flashed down to the earth. The wind howled outside the car. A few seconds later came the rumbling thunder. 

Percy had goosebumps. He felt every centimeter of space between them. He counted all of Luke’s breaths and focused on matching his breathing. His own heart was a drum in his chest, and that was a good way to describe the hollow feeling he felt. Hollow but not numb, carved out like a stone bowl and waiting to be filled. With what? 

There was a flicker of orange in the distance. It was small as a spark; easily visible because there was nothing but flat land for miles. 

“Fire,” Luke pointed out. His voice was hoarse. He swallowed to clear it. 

Percy’s jaws felt wired shut. He nodded, stared at the distant wildfire. They could outrun the flame easy, if they had to. Percy could even put it out, if he wanted to. He hugged his legs tighter, until his bones creaked and ached. 

Luke shifted. The leather seat gave a barely audible creak. As small as it was, the movement brought Luke’s scent to Percy in a wave. 

A fresh wave of goosebumps rose along Percy’s whole body. He gripped his calf so hard it made his hand hurt. His back teeth ached from the tension. 

The rain came suddenly, snuck up on them from behind while they weren’t looking. It fell in sheets onto the roof of their car. They both jumped. The wildfire in the distance was safe for now but the rain was coming. 

Luke climbed into the back seat. 

Percy felt the stretch of distance between them like a physical thing. He laid down, face on the passenger side and feet on the drivers. His pillow had been wedged between Luke and the door. It smelled like Luke. Percy buried his face in it and breathed.  
  
  
  
  
They found a piercing shop by accident. They were walking down the street, eating ice cream and stretching their legs when Percy’s attention was caught by the shiny display. 

“Do you want a piercing?” Luke asked. 

“Yes,” Percy said impulsively. The tattoo had gone well and Percy didn’t know a demigod with piercings except for Dimeka. Annabeth’s silver owl earrings had turned out to be clip-ons. “Do you?” 

Luke considered for a moment and then nodded. They finished their ice cream before going in. 

“Hi! Are you both going to get pierced?” Said a male voice behind the counter. He had ten or twelve facial piercings and studs making Orion’s Belt down his chest. 

They nodded. 

“Are you both at least eighteen?” 

“Yup,” Luke said and put his ID on the glass counter. He gave Percy a reassuring smile. 

Percy pulled out his wallet and saw that his ID had changed slightly; his birth year was changed to 1992. Percy set his ID next to Luke’s. His attention was immediately caught by the jewelry inside of the glass counter. It was pretty and came in so many shapes and sizes. His gaze got caught on one in particular. “What is this for?” He pointed. 

The man was making copies of their IDs. He came back over to look. “Ah that one is for navels. You wanna get your bellybutton pierced?” 

“Yup,” Percy said. He wasn’t sure that he really wanted one, but he might as well. Though he didn’t set out to have new experiences, Percy was getting them. So far, everything had gone pretty damn good. 

They were given paperwork to fill out, asking if there were any health concerns or allergies, saying they gave their consent to be pierced and wouldn’t sue if something went wrong. Both Percy and Luke signed the papers. “Nice tattoo,” the piercer said. 

Percy gave him one of Ariana’s business cards. 

“If you leave more, I’ll put them with the rest. We always try to promote other artists.” This was said with a jerk of the chin towards a small table full of business cards. 

Percy handed over about twenty from the stack. 

Getting his bellybutton pierced didn’t really hurt. Percy still couldn’t tell how much things were supposed to hurt. His edges were sharp and his body didn’t always send the right signals to his brain. The piercer was impressed that Percy hadn’t even flinched. 

Despite a word of caution from the piercer, Percy sat up, then stood up. He didn’t get a head rush. His body hadn’t filled with adrenaline. A silver starfish charm hung from the blue piercing. It seemed fitting and when he got tired of being reminded that he was the son of the sea god, Percy could get new jewelry. 

Luke went a much simpler route: he got both ears pierced. The jewelry was simple diamond studs. They caught the light and made little rainbows everywhere. That would come in handy if they ever needed to call anyone. 

The piercer gave them each a little bag of sea salt and instructions to soak the piercings in hot water. The size of their jewelry and a physical copy of the instructions was written down and passed over. 

“Can we eat this?” Percy asked. 

“It’s just sea salt, so technically you can,” the piercer said. “But I’d really prefer if you used it to help you heal” 

“How do you feel?” Luke asked. 

“Fine.” By the time they left the shop, Percy’s piercing was healed. They could save the salt to eat or something. “You?” 

Luke shrugged. “A little sore but it’ll be fine by bedtime.”  
  
  
  
  
Another city. “Do you wanna see a movie?” Luke asked as they drove by a chain movie theatre. 

Percy couldn’t remember the last time he saw a movie. “Sure.” 

The only movie playing that looked good was a comedy called Easy A. They bought a large popcorn to share and large drinks at the concession stand. The experience was nice. It felt good to be out in public but only socializing with Luke. They sat beside each other in the dark theatre, eating popcorn absolutely drenched with butter and salt. The movie was better than Percy thought it would be, based on the movie poster. 

When it was over, they refilled their drinks and left the theatre. They walked side by side, falling into step with each other. “Let’s check out the town,” Luke suggested. 

It was a beautiful night out, just on the edge of cold, and Percy was in a good mood. “Okay,” he agreed. The town was picturesque, with lovely pavers on the roads and antique lamp posts and flowers hanging from planters. They walked to a bridge, discussing the movie. 

“I don’t think being labeled a slut would bother me. I’ve had too much life or death shit happen to get caught up on a rumor like that,” Luke admitted. 

“Yeah. It seems so trivial when you’ve been accused of treason,” Percy agreed. Sometimes the backs of their hands brushed and Percy felt a shock every time; like touching a child of Zeus except pleasant. His heart felt like wings beating against his chest. 

“That pun about Olive’s name was great though. Seems like something the goddess of grain would do,” Luke said. He peered over the edge of the bridge and at the water below. It wasn’t much of a bridge, only five feet high with a small stream below. In a mimicry of Demeter’s voice, Luke said, “There are no olives here but I’ve got barley.” 

Percy frowned at Luke and then realized that he was trying to tell a joke. Then Percy realized that he had never heard Luke tell a joke in his life, or even be sarcastic. He smiled, charmed by Luke rather than the joke, and laughed. 

Luke smiled back, looking pleased with himself.  
  
  
  
  
October brought festivals. It seemed like every town they drove through was having a festival of some kind. Colorful flyers and billboards announced the dates and themes. 

They were too early by a few weeks for most of them. But there was one that was going to start that afternoon: Pridefest. 

“We should go,” Luke said with a wistfulness in his voice. 

“Can not gay people go?” Percy asked. He didn’t know the rules of these things. 

“As long as you aren’t a cop, you can come to Pride,” Luke informed him seriously. They drove for an hour before they found a hotel with a room to rent. There was only one bed but neither of them cared. If they wanted to attend the festival, then they’d have to share a bed later that night. 

Luke was practically bouncing with excitement. He looked like an eager puppy. When it was finally time to go, they walked to where the parade started. 

There were thousands of people at Pride. The sheer amount of bodies made Percy dizzy. There were people of all ages from babies to elders. The dress code was anything goes: some people were in jeans and a t-shirt, some in elaborate costumes, others were wearing only their underwear. Percy had never seen so much ass and tits in his life. There was an excess of glitter and neon and body paint. Everyone was dressed to highlight their best features. Their outfits and makeup seemed to say _look at me!_

Percy wasn’t dressed up and he wasn’t trying to stand out. He wore a pair of black jeans and a ripped tank top turned crop top. Luke had dressed him. Percy wondered if he was overdressed. 

But if Percy was overdressed, then so was Luke. Luke wore jeans and a long sleeve button up. All of the buttons were done up, probably so that he didn’t have to use glamor on more than just his face. He didn’t seem bothered by how they were dressed so Percy decided not to worry about it either. 

They followed the parade of floats and marchers, walking with the crowd towards some destination unknown to Percy. After a few blocks, they turned a corner and the floats went one way while the people went another. They followed the people to a park. 

Luke paid for their tickets to get in. 

When they got into the park, Percy began to see just how big this event was. There were booths everywhere; people selling food and wares. There were two separate stages and a dance floor, complete with disco ball. And in the back, was a huge section blocked off by white canvas over chain link fences that loudly declared you had to be at least 18 to enter. 

Luke herded Percy to a line that turned out to be for checking IDs to get drink tickets. 

When Percy handed over his ID, the date had changed again so that he was now twenty-one. They put a Budweiser bracelet around Percy’s wrist. “I don’t want to drink,” Percy said to Luke. He didn’t want Luke to either but he kept that to himself. 

“We won’t drink. It’s just so we don’t have to wait in line to get to the adult section,” Luke assured him. 

Percy wondered what happened in that section of the festival. He didn’t ask because he figured he would find out later. 

They didn’t go near the booths selling drink tickets. Instead, Luke guided Percy by his shoulders to an open field full of booths. It looked like a marketplace someone had set up, except they didn’t sell food. 

Percy looked down at the pins on the booth’s table. They were all stripes of different colors. The only one he recognized was the rainbow. “Are these free?” 

“They sure are,” the woman behind the booth said with a smile. 

Percy asked her what they meant. When she got to asexual he asked, “Like plants?” 

Luke hip checked him. “Like _you_ , babe.” He had snatched a rainbow pin and already had it displayed on his hoodie. 

Percy’s eyes went wide. “There’s a word for it?” He picked up the pin and studied it. It was purple, black, and white. “Thank you,” he said and pinned the asexual flag to his shirt. 

Luke smiled and rubbed their cheeks together in a quick display of warm affection. 

They moved on to the next booth. A lot of the booths were people trying to get them to sign up for stupid stuff, like newspapers. As they didn’t even have home addresses currently, Percy was more than happy to skip those. One booth had display cubicles full of condoms and tiny packets of lube. Those were free too, and you could take as many as you could fit into the drawstring pouch they gave you. 

Luke was excited about the condoms and lube. He got two of every flavor of lube - Percy had no idea that lube even came in flavors - and an entire handful of glow-in-the-dark condoms. He filled the first drawstring bag, then held out his hand for Percy’s. 

Percy gave it over willingly. He watched with fascination while Luke selected more condoms; ribbed, bumpy, thin, prelubricated, and then more glow-in-the-dark because apparently Luke was really into that. 

They paused by a third booth and were given drawstring backpacks. They were cheap but it made holding their stuff easier. It turned out that there was a lot of free stuff to get: tiny bottles of sunscreen, chapstick, an assortment of fans, stickers, and pens. One booth even had free slinkies. They put everything into their backpacks. 

Luke bought a pastel rainbow scarf, which was too hot to use now, and shoved it into his backpack. 

Percy bought a t-shirt that looked like a NASA shirt, except it said Space Ace on it in the asexual colors. Ace, he figured, was short for asexual. No one took cards and since Luke paid for almost everything else, Percy used his cash to buy their stuff. “I’m thirsty,” Percy said. 

They made their way to the food booths and ordered lemonades. The lemonade had slices of lemons on top and tasted absolutely perfect. Percy followed the other patrons with his eyes, observing people as they walked by. There were a lot of roses and bear paws, which seemed to mean something but Percy wasn’t sure what. 

Luke drank his lemonade in a few gulps, ate the lemon slice, and then wandered over to another booth to order some food. Keeping his glamour up for too long exhausted him. He ordered potato strings, which were made from an entire potato. When he got it, he brought the basket over to Percy. There was a look in Luke’s eyes that Percy recognized, though; it was the same look that Luke had when he was a kid and homeless. 

Percy decided that it was probably better to let Luke eat his fill and he would take whatever was left over. He went to a drink booth and bought two bottled waters and a blue gatorade for twenty dollars. The gatorade was for Luke. He returned to Luke and held it out in offering. 

“Thanks,” Luke said. He took a swig. “Do you want some?” He asked. His eyes no longer held that wild hunger in them now that a sizable dent had been made in the potato strings. 

Percy tried one. It tasted pretty good. They stood off to the side in the shade, eating, and watching people go by. “Have you been to a pride festival before?” Percy asked. 

Luke shook his head. “Nah. When I was a kid, I couldn’t afford it and when I was older, I didn’t have time.” He had half of the gatorade drunk within ten minutes. By the time the potato strings and gatorade were gone, Luke looked less pale. 

It was around afternoon at this point and even though it was October, the weather was still on the warm side. Standing in the sun meant sweating in the sun. Personally, Percy thought that the people on the dancefloor were crazy. It was way too hot to dance. 

“Hey, the adult show has air conditioning in their tent. We could go cool off there,” Luke suggested. Which was how they wound up walking towards the canvased off area. The people at the entrance saw their wristbands and let them without checking their IDs, meaning that they got to skip the line. 

Percy wasn’t sure what he expected, but this wasn’t it. There were booths to the right, full of black leather and shiny chrome. To the left was a stripper pole and what looked like mideval torture decives. Directly in front of them was an enormous white tent. The pole was empty of dancers, though it looked like a boy might be getting ready to dance. He stood in short shorts and his socks, adjusting a belt that hung around his waist. 

A few people browsed the booths, looking over the items on the tables. That was where Luke took him first. He started towards the tables with an apologetic look to Percy. “I just wanna see. You can go in if you want.” 

“Like...heck am I leaving you alone,” Percy said and followed Luke to the booths. Almost a month of being on the run and they hadn’t encountered any monsters. It set Percy’s teeth on end. Not only that, but no one had found them. Or even Iris-Messaged them. Percy didn’t think that Annabeth was taking his note seriously, so either there was a more important crisis happening or...or they were just really good at running away. 

The booths were draped in red, silver, and violet velvets. The products displayed were sex toys, every single one of them. Most were for anal use, according to the signs, but there were a few dildos with signs that cautioned against anal use. Looking at them made Percy’s face warm and he was glad that he could blame his blush on the heat. He and Annabeth had never used sex toys; there wasn’t time or money for that kind of thing. A glimpse at the price tags confirmed that these things were expensive. There wasn’t anything on the table for less than twenty dollars and most of them went up into the hundreds range. 

Luke was looking at the anal plugs. Specifically the silver ones with huge, fake gems on the ends that weren't meant to be inserted. He picked up one with a pink gem then set it back down. He picked up one with a purple gem. 

“That matches your sweater,” Percy said stupidly. He wished he hadn’t said anything. Luke probably didn’t even _want_ him tagging along while he went sex toy shopping. 

Luke looked surprised and then he smiled. “Sure does,” he agreed. “Can I borrow a hundred dollars?” He flashed his blue puppy dog eyes at Percy. 

Percy found himself opening his wallet and pulling out a crisp hundred dollar bill. He handed it to Luke. He felt weird but not in a bad way, he didn’t think. Just weird. This was weird. Percy never thought that this was where they would be a year after Luke’s death. Hell, just a month ago, he hadn’t thought that this was where he would be at all. Percy expected to be trying to make up school or keep Annabeth out of his pants or heck, even on another quest. That’s what he told himself anyway and it was a pretty lie that he was going to hang onto. 

The plug went into Luke’s bag. Luke squeezed Percy’s hand. “Thanks.” 

They paused by the torture equipment. People were strapped in, being hit with paddles by dudes in leather. Other people were gathered around, counting out loud and watching. 

They got to five and then the man being paddled said “I’m done.” He was released. 

A woman stepped up to take his place. She got to seventeen. When she stood up, the paddler supported her until someone from the audience led her to a nearby folding chair. 

“Mortals,” Percy muttered. It didn’t look that bad, even the smacks that rang out. 

Luke grinned. “You think you can take more?” 

“I know I could,” Percy retorted. 

“You wanna try?” 

Percy hesitated. Though the dude they first saw had a boner when he got up, it didn’t seem to be overly sexual. The air wasn’t charged with sexual tension. No one was being openly gross about it. 

The man doing the paddling called for another volunteer and reminded the crowd that the proceeds went towards homeless LGBT+ youth. 

Percy found himself stepping forward before he realized it. “I’ll try.” 

The man ran down what was going to happen, speaking quickly and quietly. He stood back while Percy swung his leg over the saddle but drew close again when it was time to buckle his wrists into the straps. “Not too tight?” 

Percy shook his head. 

“Ready?” 

Percy nodded. Being paddled stung but it was nothing compared to pretty much every other thing Percy had gone through. It still didn’t feel sexual, even though a man was smacking his ass with a leather paddle. It was difficult to tell because everything about this place felt sexual but also not at all. 

At seven, Luke knelt in front of Percy. “How’s it going?” 

All Percy could see was Luke’s face and the blue of his eyes. “Fine,” Percy said. He tried to shrug. 

“I wouldn’t go past thirty,” Luke warned. His eyes gleamed. 

“It’s not that bad. Thirty-five at least,” Percy insisted. The count was at twelve now. Percy’s ass felt hot but he felt pretty good. 

Luke shook his head. “You’re laying down and all the blood is rushing to your ass right now. But you’re gonna have to stand up after this and I don’t want you to pass out.” 

“You okay?” The man asked, butting into their world. 

“Fine,” Percy said again. It was meant for both of them. 

The man took his word for it and smacked his ass again. That one almost hurt. 

“Besides, if you go too much, you’re going to drop.” 

“Wassat?” Percy asked. Yeah, he definitely felt good. Zoned out. Pain didn’t normally do that to him, so it surprised him; but in a distant sort of way. 

Luke narrowed his eyes and looked at Percy’s hands, hanging limply. The other two had clenched their fists and held onto the rope attached to the wrist cuffs. His eyes landed on Percy’s again. “If you haven’t already.” 

Percy looked into Luke’s eyes. Luke had such pretty eyes. He wondered if he could drown in those eyes. 

Before he knew it, the man was unbuckling his wrists. 

“How many was that?” Percy asked. He sat up and got a head rush. Were people clapping? He thought they were but his head felt fuzzy and light. 

“Thirty-two,” Luke said. He slid an arm around Percy’s waist and helped him to his feet. 

“I said thirty-five.” 

“And I said thirty,” Luke retorted. “I let you have two extra as a treat.” Luke paid the man and then walked Percy to the tent. When they found seats near the edge of the group, Luke pulled out a water bottle and handed it to Percy. 

Percy drank gratefully. Sitting down actually did hurt in a dull sort of way that was more uncomfortable than painful. The water helped. He leaned against Luke’s shoulder and closed his eyes. It was time for a small nap. He hadn’t been around this big a group of people in a long time and being spanked was tiring. 

Luke stayed still for the entire demonstration, for all of the speeches, for the whole show. He only shook Percy awake once it was over. “Feel better, baby?” 

Percy yawned and nodded. He could have slept more but his butt hurt; it was hard to tell if it was because of the folding chair he was sitting on or the spanking. “A little.” 

“You missed everything. There was an electrostimulation demonstration that was...interesting. It’s definitely not one of my kinks, though.” Luke kept his arm slung around Percy’s waist when they stood up. 

“I guess that has something to do with electricity?” Percy asked. He was happy to lean against Luke. “That isn’t my kink either.” 

When they stepped outside the tent, the sky had changed dramatically. It was no longer day; the last rays of the sun were setting. That didn’t mean that it wasn’t still bright out; all the booths were lit up and there were lights every five feet. A lot of patrons had broken out the glowsticks. The boy in the socks was pole dancing for a fairly large and rowdy crowd. He had glowsticks around his neck and his body paint glowed too. 

“Do you have any kinks?” Luke asked as they exited the adult section and rejoined everyone else. Most of the people with kids had gone home or were making their way toward the exits by now. 

Percy hummed. “Is cuddling a kink?” 

“Probably.” Luke smiled. “That’s sweet.” 

They made their way to one of the stages and watched some drag queens walk around in heels. Luke perked up a bit as he watched them, eyes following one after the other. 

Percy was neutral. He wasn’t sure he understood the appeal of makeup and dresses but it wasn’t like they were hurting him with their fashion choices. He used Luke’s distraction to continue leaning against Luke, and turned his face toward Luke’s neck so that he could breathe in Luke’s scent. 

A while later, Luke said, “I want to dance.” 

Percy did not want to dance. Mostly because he didn’t know how to dance. It wasn’t one of those things that he’d ever had time to learn. “Do you care if I just watch?” 

Luke’s smile was wide. His white teeth glistened. “Of course not.” They walked back to the dance floor. 

The dance floor had turned into the hot spot of the night. There were flashing blacklights and the disco ball sparkled. Music thrummed so loud that Percy could feel the vibrations in his feet. It was a mass of bodies, all of them crowded in with each other, everyone dancing with everyone else. The ground looked sticky. 

Luke dropped Percy off at a table that flanked the dance floor with an “I’ll be back soon” and disappeared into the crowd. His white blond hair coupled with his height, made Luke easy enough to keep track of. 

Percy watched Luke dance in and out of view. Sometimes he was with another boy, sometimes he would dance alone, then he would find another boy to dance with. It was the kind of dancing that was less about dancing and more about grinding your hips together. If they were mortal or otherwise, it was impossible to pick out individual scents in the large throng of bodies. 

It wasn’t quite jealousy that Percy felt as he observed Luke dancing with random boys. Dangerously close, yes, but not quite. He didn’t want to be in with all those bodies and he didn’t want to be the one that Luke would - probably - inevitably drag off to some semi-private corner and try out those condoms with. In the end, Percy and Luke would leave together, and Luke would take a shower in their hotel room to wash off the smell of sex and other people, then he would climb into bed with Percy. Luke took one partner a week as far as Percy could tell. He was always so discrete and fast about it that sometimes Percy didn’t know _who_ he’d been with and could only tell by the smell of sex that clung to Luke after. 

As he sat there, Percy realized that he was jealous because he didn’t feel like enough. This wasn’t a new feeling for Percy, but now it was aimed at someone new. They weren’t even together in a relationship and Percy didn’t think they would be for a hundred reasons but one of the biggest was because Percy didn’t think he would be enough for Luke. Annabeth always took what she wanted from Percy but Luke wasn’t like that. He would probably wind up cheating on Percy and Percy wasn’t sure if he could even blame Luke. 

Luke danced and slipped out of sight and was back at Percy’s side all within an hour. He smelled like latex and banana candy. Sweat made his curls cling to his forehead. “Hey. Are you doing okay?” 

Percy nodded. 

“We never checked out that other tent,” Luke said. “Wanna see if there’s anything interesting before we make our exit?” 

Percy stood up. “Okay.” 

Luke slipped his hand into Percy’s as they walked. His palm was sweaty. 

Percy laced their fingers together. His face was probably red but thankfully it was dark enough that Luke wouldn’t notice. He followed Luke to the stage with a tent over it. 

It had speakers set up everywhere and a few people hanging out. The concert seemed to be over. Someone had left an acoustic guitar on stage beside a stool. 

Luke climbed up on stage and held out a hand to help Percy up. After Percy was beside him, Luke let go of his hand and snapped his fingers. Then he picked up the guitar and sat on the stool. Luke faced Percy. “How about a song?” 

Percy glanced at the mortals. They were still talking amongst themselves. “Okay,” he agreed and sat down to listen. 

“He’s so kissable, huggable, / lovable, unbelievable / he's a mouthful of anything and / everything a man could want : he ain't typical, he's / unpredictable, he's available, / It's a miracle / how my heart stumbled into / someone so kissable, huggable, / lovable, unbelievable.” This was the first time that Luke had played guitar for Percy. It was a song that Percy recognized of course, they had it on CD, but Luke always sang along or sang without any music at all. This was a nice change. 

Percy smiled. Yeah, maybe Luke would go off with other boys for a quickie in an alley, but did he sing for them? No. He only sang for Percy. 

“Up 'til now my life has been / so lonely and boring / I never thought I would find / someone so / elegant, intelligent, heaven sent, / all my money spent / I put a big down payment on that / itty bitty diamond ring : he's so beautiful, / it's indisputable, it's undeniable, / he's got-to-havable / he's music to my ears, / makes my heart sing, so kissable, / huggable, lovable, unbelievable.” Luke never broke eye contact while he sang. Blue eyes could be so cold but Luke’s were warm like tropical waters. He smiled at Percy during the instrumentals between verses. 

Percy’s heart fluttered in his chest. He swore the thing had wings and they beat fast whenever Luke gave him that look full of affection. He couldn’t help it when he smiled back, couldn’t help but return that warmth. 

Luke finished the song and set the guitar down. 

Percy surged to his feet. 

Their arms came around each other. 

Percy spun Luke in a circle. 

Luke laughed. When his feet were on the ground again, he pressed his forehead to Percy’s. His breath tasted like banana candy. “Well damn,” Luke said and that country accent slipped out again. “Maybe I should invest in a guitar.” 

Percy opened his mouth to reply… 

A voice cut him off. “Sorry to interrupt, guys, but it’s midnight and the event’s over until tomorrow.” It was an employee, one of the people from the security agency they’d hired. They looked apologetic but firm about kicking them out. “If you could head toward the exit…” 

Percy jumped off the stage first and held out a hand for Luke. As he did, he thought he saw someone putting away a cell phone… It was probably his imagination. Why would anyone be filming them anyway? 

Luke took Percy’s hand and accepted his help. Neither of them needed help getting up or down from the stage; it was just an excuse to be close. Luke held Percy’s hand all the way to the car.  
  
  
  
  
“Percy, pull over!” Luke’s face was pressed to the passenger side window. 

Percy found an open parking spot and pulled into it. They were in an art district in an old part of a town somewhere. Yeah, okay, Percy still didn’t really know where they were. The whole point of this was to get lost and by the gods, he was going to do his damnedest. 

The second that Percy put the car into park, Luke opened the door and was out. He dashed into the nearest store. 

Percy’s jaw dropped. He shut off the car, reached over to lock the door, and then got out and locked his door. For several long moments, Percy stood on the sidewalk and squinted at the letters on the sign above the store. Two Os and a K, plus the display in the window, meant that Luke had just rushed into a bookstore. Confusion won out over annoyance and Percy made sure to pay the parking meter before going into the store. A cow bell rang when he pushed open the door. It smelled like old books and dust. No scent of monsters or strange demigods. 

The store was full of floor to ceiling bookshelves that looked like a maze. The only part that wasn't maze-like was the long checkout counter just to the right of the door. Percy turned toward the cashier. “Um, hi. Did you see a man with light blond hair run in here?” 

The girl was college-aged and she wore a beige leather jacket. Her glasses were shaped like cats eyes. “Are you an undercover cop going to arrest him?” 

Percy blinked. “Uh, no. He’s my…” the words _beloved cousin_ rang in his mind and he shook them away. “Companion.” 

That got an arched eyebrow. Her eyebrows were purple, Percy realized, a soft shade of purple. They were nearly the same shade of brown as her hair but that was definitely a purple tint. “Sounds like something a cop would say.” 

Percy shrugged. Why did Luke have to choose a bookstore with such an annoying cashier? “You know what? Forget it. I don’t know why I’m even asking.” He went deeper into the bookstore and followed his nose. 

Luke stood in the fiction section. He had a book in his hands that had a lightning strike on the cover. He was so engrossed in reading the blurb on the back that he didn’t even look up when Percy approached. 

“Is that some magic demigod book?” Percy asked. 

Luke hummed distractedly. 

“I mean you’ve been in here for less than five minutes but you’ve already picked out a book so I’m assuming it’s some sort of magic,” Percy continued. He put his chin on Luke’s shoulder to read over it. 

Luke tilted his head to rub their cheeks together. “No, it isn’t magic. I just like the author and I haven’t read this one.” 

“So you were listening,” Percy said dryly. The blurb made it seem...not really worth stopping the car and rushing into the store for, if Percy was being honest. “Are you going to get it?” 

“Yeah. I think so.” Luke tucked the book to his chest with one arm and touched the spines of the other books on the shelf. There was a space where his book had been. “I think one will be enough for now. It’ll take me forever to get through this.” 

Percy didn’t like books because they were difficult to read. It didn’t matter what language they were in. He even had trouble with Ancient Greek. So Percy tended to avoid books as much as possible. It wasn’t worth the effort for him. For Luke, the effort was clearly worth the struggle. Annabeth was like that too, though she read to learn rather than for pleasure and was strictly a nonfiction reader. “Luke, I don’t mind stopping if you want to,” he said. 

Luke pulled away but it was only to flash Percy a sweet smile. “I’ll try to give you more warning next time.” He held the book like it was something precious as he led the way back to the cashier’s counter. 

The girl at the counter squinted at the two of them. “How did you find him?” She asked Percy. 

“I’m good at tracking him down,” Percy replied with a mirthless smile. 

Luke set his book on the counter so that she could ring it up. “Did I miss something?” 

“No,” Percy said with a sigh. He pulled out his wallet. Yeah, he just spent money on Luke, but Luke was buying their food, gas, and hotel room every night. If Luke wanted a six dollar book - or a hundred dollar sex toy - then Percy was alright with spending some money on him. He still had two hundred dollars left. 

“Did you have that tattoo when you came in?” 

“Are you always so suspicious?” Percy countered. He slid a business card across the counter.  
  
  
  
  
Another day, another town. There was rain and high winds - possibly a chance of tornadoes in the area - so the Cajun festival they were going to attend was postponed for at least a day. 

Percy was curled in bed, covers drawn up to his chin, pretending to watch TV. On TV was a documentary about mushrooms, which from what Percy caught, was actually pretty interesting and scary. But his attention kept drifting away from the TV. Some things were more important than mushrooms. His eyes kept being drawn to Luke. 

Luke lounged on the other bed with a book in his lap. He’d picked it up from a used bookstore and was struggling through it. His brow was furrowed as he read, a pout on his face. The expression was cute. Sometimes Luke lifted the book closer to his face to reread something and then his brow would smooth. It seemed like it was worth the purchase. 

Percy yawned. He was tired. It was a good day for napping. His eyes were heavy and the sound of rain was lulling him to sleep.  
  
  
  
  
The next day, they walked to the Cajun festival with empty stomachs. All the fliers had promised an abundance of food. 

The very first thing Percy saw once they were in the festival was a table covered with pineapples. “Luke!” He smacked Luke’s arm to get his attention. “I want one of those!” Percy pointed. 

“A pineapple?” Luke used a hand to shade his eyes, even though he was wearing sunglasses. “Ooh a pina colada _inside_ of a pineapple.” A moment later, he declared, “They’re selling them to teenagers so I think they’re virgin pina coladas.” 

They got in line. This festival didn’t have an adult section, unless you counted the VIP bar by the stage, so they didn’t have to worry about getting ID bracelets. The pina coladas smelled delicious. 

As they ordered their virgin drinks - which came with cute little umbrellas - Luke started humming. As they walked away with pineapple cups in their hands, Luke started to sing, “Bring me two pina coladas / I want one for each hand -” 

“Do you have a country song for everything?” Percy asked. He took a sip of the drink. It tasted really sweet and tropical. 

“Honey, just wait till we find a jukebox,” Luke said with a wink. He continued humming the song. 

It seemed like eating was about the only thing to do while the band was getting set up. That was fine because there were plenty of foods that Percy hadn’t had. Like crawfish. They got a plate of seasoned crawfish to share and found a shady spot in the grass to sit. “How do we eat this?” Percy asked, looking down at it. 

Luke shrugged. “I ain’t got a clue.” He looked around and watched someone nearby eat theirs. When he looked at Percy again, he said “what?” 

“Did you just say _ain’t_?” Percy asked, at once horrified and delighted. He grinned. “You know that isn’t a word right?” 

Luke pointed a crawfish at him. “Listen, my mom predicted that she’d meet the love of her life at a country music concert so she spent _years_ going to country concerts around the country looking for her soulmate. By the time she got pregnant with me and returned to Connecticut, her posh accent was gone and she had an affinity for country music. It was all she ever played in the house. And I hardly ever left the house for the first nine years of my life so yeah. That’s why I’ve got an accent.” 

“I’ve never heard it before.” Percy didn’t elaborate and Luke didn’t need him to. 

“Well when you’re a kid in the northern states, it makes you stand out even more. By the time Thalia and I found each other, I’d learned how to mask it.” Luke gave him the flattest, most unimpressed look ever. “I had this fight with Thalia and I am not having it with you too.” 

Percy’s grin grew. “You and Thalia fought over this?” 

Luke sighed and studied the crawfish in his hands. “The biggest fight Thalia and I ever got in was when she told me ain’t isn’t a word. We fought about it for weeks. I refused to say isn’t. Finally, we broke into a library and looked it up in the dictionary. Surprise, surprise, Thalia was right and I was so heartbroken I cried about it for hours.” 

Percy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Are you sure _that’s_ the biggest fight you ever had and not the one where she killed you?” He could picture a skinny little Luke bawling, tears leaving clean streaks down his dirty face, because of yet another thing that wasn’t going his way. 

Luke looked at him like he was crazy. “Of course I’m sure. Just ask her.” He pinched the tail off the crawfish and squeezed out the meat. He looked at the tiny morsel, shrugged, and popped it into his mouth. 

Percy did the same. The orange spice on the shell had made its way to the meat and added a burst of flavor. Otherwise, it tasted a lot like every other crustacean Percy's ever had. 

Luke ate five of them and then panted. His tongue was orange. 

“You are so white, Luke,” Percy said with a smirk. “Take a drink.” 

Luke did and flipped Percy off while he was at it. 

Percy laughed. 

They didn’t move much from the spot they were in except to get more food and drinks or use the porta potties. The musicians on stage played blues and jazz music. Aside from the food and the concert, the only thing around to do were the eating contests. Neither of them were very interested in those. Luke had made a face when Percy suggested it, “Percy, I lived most of my life eating with a hundred kids. Have you _seen_ how kids eat? You think I want to watch grown ass adults shoveling food in their mouths?” Percy was trying new things but even he didn’t find much appeal in watching other people eat. 

Unless it was Luke and ice cream cones because Luke took such ridiculous little kitten licks, all prim and proper, and it was _hilarious._

When they were full, they leaned against the trunk of the tree, each facing a different direction but shoulders still brushing. Percy was ready for a nap. He thought that, even with the crowd and the hard ground and the rough bark against the back of his head, he could probably fall asleep. They should probably head back to the hotel, Percy thought. It was only a short walk away. Instead, Percy set his right hand in the grass between them. 

A few moments later, Luke’ s left hand brushed against his. The touch was hesitant, as though it could have been an accident, except that Luke didn’t pull his hand away or say sorry after. Their pinkies touched and it was so stupid be so excited about that because they’d cuddled and hugged and Luke had kissed his forehead so why did it make Percy’s heart sing? 

Annabeth’s voice burst into his head, calling him a coward. In his mind’s eye, he saw the look Rachel gave him when he hadn’t kissed her. 

Percy’s eyes closed against the memories. What was wrong with wanting to take things slow? A month on the road with Luke wasn’t enough time to sort out his feelings. What was wrong with being sure? It was of the utmost importance that Percy was sure about Luke. They were traveling together and the idea of separating - especially over something like their relationship status - was enough to steal away Percy’s breath. And this was _nice_. 

_Luke_ was nice. 

Percy liked where they were at. He also really, _really_ liked not having sex pushed on him. There it was again, that thing that kept coming back up. Gods, Percy just wanted to enjoy almost holding hands with Luke without wondering if Luke would even want an asexual as a partner. 

He breathed deeply through his mouth and exhaled through his nose; once and then twice and a third time for good measure. Percy tried to clear his mind, to focus only on the physical. The feeling of Luke’s skin brushing against his, the tree trunk at his back, the wind blowing through his short hair, the sun warming his ankles. 

Luke locked their pinky fingers together. He said, “Do you think I should learn jazz?” 

Percy’s heart skipped a beat. “I think your accent is too strong.” He smiled. “Besides, I don’t know how much room we’ve got in the car for more CDs.” 

“We could get rid of some of your hip hop,” Luke suggested. His voice held a smile in it. 

Percy snorted. “Absolutely not. I can’t handle country music twenty-four-seven.” 

“That’s because I ain’t the one singing it twenty-four-seven.” 

Percy couldn’t deny it so he didn’t even try. He was sure that he was smiling like a fool. The rest of the day passed like a dream.  
  
  
  
  
When he sat in the passenger seat, Luke almost never faced the windshield. He sat with his body turned towards Percy, his feet up on the seat, a pillow behind his back. At the moment, Luke was engrossed in the book he’d picked up a few towns ago. He would read some then pause and stare out one of the windows and then read some more. 

Percy glanced over at him from time to time. 

Luke wore his purple striped sweater, something opaque and black called leggings that hugged his legs like a second skin, and a pair of matching purple ankle-high socks. Whenever Luke wore the sweater, Percy thought of the anal plug with the purple gem and wondered where that was. He tried not to wonder about it too much because if he didn’t focus on driving then he’d veer into another lane. 

All of that might be gathered in the first glance. The second would bring observations about Luke’s hair. How it turned white in the sun and gold in the shade. How it was getting longer and beginning to curl around his high cheekbones to frame his face. 

Percy’s last haircut was a month ago, given to him by Luke, and so far he hadn’t had a single black hair grow in. He didn’t _feel_ constantly stressed out like he used to, so Percy was still holding out hope that one day he would have black hair again. 

Suddenly, Luke gasped. He did that sometimes, made noises while he read. The way Luke got so engrossed in books was, well whatever it was, Percy liked it. “He’s a demigod!” 

Percy cocked his head. “Who’s a demigod?” 

“Shadow!” Luke said as though that should be obvious. Percy vaguely recalled the name Shadow on the book’s blurb. Luke stuck a finger between the pages and gestured to Percy with the book. “I had my suspicions but I think they were just confirmed.” He flipped it open, the book held close to his face as he scanned the pages. “ _They’re all gods._ Mr. Nancy? Anansi? It’s so obvious. Ugh, I’m so _stupid._ ” 

“You aren’t stupid,” Percy said. He was totally lost. “So that book is about the...African gods?” He was pretty sure the title was _American Dogs_ so that didn’t track. 

Luke bit his lip. “Um, no. Yes? I mean there are some here. I don’t recognize most of these names, though.” He looked at Percy through his lashes. “And I don’t want to tempt Fate by saying their names out loud.” Luke shivered. 

Percy lowered the air conditioning, though he didn’t think that was why Luke shivered. He wasn’t sure what to say about Luke’s revelations so he kept quiet. 

Luke went back to reading.  
  
  
  
  
“Are you sure we can risk Arizona? Clarisse goes to college...somewhere here,” Percy asked. They were parked at Four Corners. Four Corners sounded cool, but there was just the road and a sign announcing that they were in four states at once. 

“We’ll stay out of the big cities,” Luke said. He produced a brochure from a folder full of them. “The salt river is closed for tubing right now but you can still visit the national forest.” He pointed to a picture. “And they have wild horses here.” 

Percy perked up at that. He had never met an honest to gods wild horse before. It was very tempting to meet one, or a whole herd. “If Clarisse finds you…” 

“You’ll break her nose again?” Luke asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Percy was worried he would have to do more than just break her nose. Clarisse was a ruthless hunter and she held grudges hard enough to rival a child of Hades. But it was a big state. The odds of running into Clarisse were small, especially if they stayed out of the big cities. “Alright. Arizona it is.” 

Arizona was hot. It was the kind of hot that dried you out and left your skin feeling tight and leathery. It was late October but the temperature was in the low nineties. They pulled in at a truck stop to fill the gas tank and Percy went inside the large building. There was a restaurant and bathrooms that held showers, there was a part that looked like a normal gas station, and the rest of the building was a tourist shop. 

The entire place smelled weird and it wasn’t until Percy saw all the pottery that he realized it was the smell of clay. There were whole shelves full of nothing but clay bowls and vases and boxes. Some had black marks across them (it turned out this was horsehair) and almost all of them were painted with horses and eagles and coyotes. They were pretty. Percy was very careful not to bump into any of them. 

Percy saw colorful bobblehead turtles that were made of wood, he saw woven rugs and cowboy hats and hats made of real raccoon fur with tails dangling. There were statues of horses and bears and native Americans and cowboys and skeletons everywhere. In a display case, there was jewelry made of silver and turquoise. There was even a gun with a silver and turquoise handle. The label didn’t say whether or not the gun was functional or just decorative. The weirdest thing was an entire rattlesnake skin - head included - that had been made into a belt. 

Luke found him still staring at the snake belt. “Snakeskin is lame,” he said. His voice had gone weird. “Let’s get something to drink.” 

They walked over to the gas station half of the building. Percy got a blue Icee, Luke got a red one. Percy held both drinks while Luke got another twenty-four pack of water and a bag of ice for the cooler. “We’re gonna need it here,” Luke said. 

As they emptied the water from the cooler onto a cactus in the parking lot, Percy said, “I can see Clarisse wearing that snakeskin belt.” Now that they were outside again, he had started to sweat. This place was hell. No wonder Clarisse was like that. This was where she was born. 

Luke hummed. 

Percy cocked his head. “Do you have something against snakeskin?” 

Luke sighed. He shaded his eyes and looked up at the sky. “Let’s go before it gets hotter.” 

Percy hesitated. His Icee was melting and it _was_ uncomfortable outside of the air conditioning. He got into the car. 

Luke drove them out to the national forest. He hid the car with Mist so that they didn’t have to spend their cash on the entrance fee. 

The desert was like nothing Percy had ever seen before and it wasn’t like what he imagined a desert to be like. In his imagination, there was nothing but sand. Here, there were trees and bushes and grass but everything was yellow or brown and thin and prickly. It didn’t offer up much shade. And there was cacti everywhere. Percy had never seen a cactus in real life. 

It wasn’t until they had found the river and were parked beside it that Luke spoke again, “I don’t really want to talk about it because it makes me angry and I’m trying not to get angry.” 

Percy raised an eyebrow. He slurped his Icee. “Okay.” 

Luke sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. “When I was fourteen, I met a demigod named Halcyon Green. He wore the ugliest green snakeskin suits.” Luke told Percy the tale of Hal; of his powers, of how he was punished for using them, of how he killed other demigods for decades to survive, of how he sacrificed his life to save Luke and Thalia’s, of how the dagger Luke had given Annabeth was given to him by Hal. “I tried changing things,” Luke said. “And I failed and I died. Now that I’m alive again, I’m trying not to get back into that rut of being angry all the time. If I wasn’t so angry, the Crooked One wouldn’t have been able to manipulate me like that.” 

Percy stared out at the river and tried to imagine his dad punishing him for using his powers; powers that he’d _gotten_ from his dad. Luke was right; what Apollo did to Hal was evil. He debated what to say, because now that Luke brought it up, Percy didn’t want to spend his time angry either. It wasn’t too late for Percy to go down the path Luke had; in fact, he was the same age Luke had been when Kronos first got to him. “Thanks for telling me,” Percy said. 

Luke nodded. He looked miserable. 

“Let’s see if we can find some horses,” Percy suggested even though he didn’t want to leave the air conditioning. 

“Alright,” Luke agreed. 

They went around to the trunk of the car for the sunscreen they kept in the back. The sun was so oppressive that Percy felt like they would get sunburnt in the shade. 

Luke pulled his shirt over his head. This was only the second time that Percy had seen Luke’s torso, though it was only a glimpse because Luke stood angled away from him. “Would you do my back?” There were no scars on Luke’s back and it was a startling contrast. 

Percy rubbed sunscreen into Luke’s skin, admiring the muscle tone. Even after being dead and not following a strict training regime, Luke was still well muscled and strong. Percy enjoyed the smooth heat of Luke’s skin beneath his hands. When he was done, Percy stepped back and rubbed the excess sunscreen into his own arms. He pulled his shirt over his head. “My turn.” 

Luke rubbed sunscreen into Percy’s back. His palms were calloused from years of fighting with a sword. “Alright, you’re good to go. I’m gonna put something cooler on so look away unless you wanna get flashed.” 

Percy thought about peeking but instead kept his eyes on the desert. 

After some shuffling, Luke said, “Alright.” It was hot enough out that Luke skipped the hoodie and wore a pair of shorts that Percy didn’t recognize. Luke often picked up clothes while they were in cities so that wasn’t a surprise. The shorts were _very_ short. When Luke bent over to sunscreen his legs, Percy saw that the shorts had butterflies embroidered on the back pockets. The butterflies were made with glittery golden thread and kept catching Percy’s eye. 

Looking at the shorts, Percy didn’t see how Luke could be wearing underwear. Just like with the hoodie. The answer came to him suddenly. “Can I ask you a personal question?” 

Luke glanced at Percy, expression wary even behind his sunglasses. “I might not answer it.” 

“Okay.” Percy swallowed down his nervousness. He didn’t think Luke would abandon him in the desert. “Why do you wear women’s clothing?” 

Luke handed Percy a water bottle before closing the trunk. “I like to cross dress.” He gave a half shrug. With the sun on Luke’s glasses, Percy couldn’t see his eyes but he thought it was a bigger deal than Luke was trying to make it. 

“Since when?” They walked along the shore of the river, keeping step as much as possible with uneven ground. 

Another shrug. “Since forever, I guess. My mom was never really...sane enough to notice or care. Wearing cute stuff when you’re homeless sort of...attracts a specific kind of person, but I still tried. Thalia put up with it because it can be hard to find proper clothes while you’re on the move and broke.” This was accompanied by an eye roll. “At Camp, well, even the girls don’t wear skirts there. And, um, the army wasn’t really the appropriate place for cross dressing.” 

“Oh.” Percy couldn’t imagine having to hide who he was and what he liked for his whole life. “Thanks for telling me.” 

Luke looked at him from over his sunglasses. “That’s two _thanks for telling me’s_ in one day.” 

“Well you shared a lot of personal trauma and trusted me not to, like, freak out. So…” Percy shrugged, feeling awkward. He was glad that the heat baking his face made his blush unnoticeable. 

Luke hummed and adjudged his sunglasses. “I figured you’d say something about the shorts.” 

“Yeah?” 

“You kept staring at my legs.” Luke smirked, playful. “Everytime I wore your hoodie.” 

Percy’s blush grew warmer. Well, if they were getting it all out now then Percy had one more question. “Do you shave your legs?” 

Luke gave an amused snort. “I shave everything below the eyebrows about once a month. It grows slow enough that upkeep is pretty easy.” 

“Okay.” Percy looked at the river instead of at Luke. His whole body was hot and he couldn’t tell if it was the subject - everything below the eyebrows - or the fact that it was coming on afternoon. He moved to walk in the water, never breaking his stride. When he touched water, he could feel what was beneath the surface and so stumbling wasn’t a concern either. 

“Just curious again?” Luke prompted. 

Percy hummed. “I’m realizing that I know a lot about...things you’ve done, your past, but not really who you are as a person. If that makes sense.” 

Luke considered this. “Okay. Fair enough.” The undercurrent of unpleasant tension dissipated like mist. Luke joined Percy in the water. He sloshed through it ungracefully. “I know you aren’t...a dick... It’s just, Thalia always said I was too soft and affectionate and not boy enough. We’ve got a good thing going and I don’t want to fuck it up.” 

“Annabeth used to say that I remind her of Thalia.” At the time, that had been an honor. After meeting her and then hearing Luke talk about her, Percy wondered how much of an honor it was. 

“You remind me of her too, sometimes,” Luke admitted. “Especially your hair.” 

Percy was fairly certain that was a joke. He didn’t smile this time. “I don’t want to fuck this up, either.” 

“Not to jinx us, but I think we’re off to a pretty good start.” Luke added, “In regards to not fucking up.” 

Now Percy did smile. It felt good to hear Luke say that. Their hands brushed and Percy wanted to reach out and take Luke’s hand even though they were both sweating…but he heard something. Percy froze, cocked his head to listen harder. 

Beside him, Luke went still. Years of being hunted coming to the surface in an instant. He listened too but after a moment, he shook his head. 

“I hear voices,” Percy whispered. The voices weren’t the ones of the fish swimming in the river they tread. Percy had been ignoring them the whole time. These were new voices. He breathed deep through his nose and caught the scent of horse musk. “Horses.” 

Understanding crossed Luke’s features. He looked around. 

The horses came from around the bend ahead of them silently. At least their steps were silent. Their voices were pretty loud as they talked to each other. They were about to cross the river when they stopped. There were five full grown horses, four mares and a stallion, and one fluffy colt. 

“Hi,” Percy said. He thought about waving, but wasn’t sure how a wild herd would take that. 

_A son of the sea god,_ the lead mare said, more to the herd than to Percy. 

The colt belonged to her, stayed close to his mother as he peered at Percy. _They smell weird._

The stallion snorted. He held his tail high. _What do you want, son of the sea god?_

“We’re just passing through,” Percy said. He got the distinct feeling that they weren’t welcomed here. This was the off season, so the horses probably didn’t encounter a lot of tourists this time of year. “It was nice to meet you.” Percy looped his arm through Luke’s and turned around. 

The herd paused for a few long moments before heading into the water. The splash drew Percy’s attention. Even the foal took to the water with ease, swimming across the river beside his mother. 

Percy and Luke watched the herd cross the river. “They weren’t friendly?” Luke asked. 

Percy hummed. “I think they were worried about losing their freedom. As a son of the sea god, I can ask them to take me anywhere.” 

Luke put his arm around Percy’s shoulder. He was sweaty - they both were - and it made his scent stronger. “I can’t imagine wild horses back East.” 

Percy nodded agreement. He knew that horses in North America were considered invasive, but they seemed like they had been here long enough that they now belonged. 

Luke stepped away from Percy, deeper into the water. “This was fun but I’m hot. Is this river gross?” 

Percy could feel trash at the bottom of the river, but not as much as he expected. There were some old beer bottles, a t-shirt, and a pair of sunglasses in the water near them. “Be careful where you step. There’s sharp stuff on the bottom.” Luke was wearing shoes; it would probably be fine. 

Luke nodded. He walked into the water up to his hips. Then he dropped down beneath the surface. 

Percy stood on the shore, felt Luke’s presence through his feet. It was so hot and the water was cool around his ankles...but he couldn’t make himself go in any deeper. What if he drowned? Instead, he found a sandy bit of shore and sat down in the water. The minnows that swam in the shallows had tinny voices that protested but he ignored them. 

Luke came back up, hair wet and tawny skin gleaming in the sun. His scars were shiny white lines across his torso. He swam from one shore to the other and back again. The water was over his head in the very middle, but Luke was a strong swimmer. Where they were, the current wasn’t too strong; which was likely why the horses chose to cross here. Luke was beautiful and golden in the afternoon light. After a while, Luke put his feet on solid ground. The water came up to his neck. “You aren’t going to swim?” 

Percy shook his head. 

Luke glanced around. “Is there a river monster about to eat me?” 

Percy smiled. “No. I just don’t want to swim.” 

Luke headed back toward him. He sat down behind Percy, scooped some water with both hands, and let it fall down Percy’s back to cool him off. “Can I ask _you_ a personal question?” 

The water felt nice against Percy’s hot skin. He sighed with contentment and then again, minus the contentment. “Yeah.” He knew what was coming and it made his stomach clench uncomfortably. It was inevitable, when traveling with someone, that you get to know them. Percy wasn’t sure how much he wanted to submit to being known. He’d already told Luke so much. Did Luke need to know every inch of Percy? 

“Are you avoiding going swimming?” Luke asked. “We’ve passed by a lot of lakes and rivers but you haven’t gone in past your ankles in any of them. Not to mention the hotel pools.” He poured more water down Percy’s back. 

Percy sighed a third time. “I’m broken somehow.” Silence met that statement. “I’ve almost drowned twice this summer. I didn’t think I _could_ drown. In fact, there have been times that I’ve _wanted_ to drown but couldn’t or didn’t.” He lifted his hands out of the water and studied his palms as though they held the answers. “I’m...scared...of the water.” 

Luke hummed. “Too bad you ain’t a chinchilla. They roll around in the dirt to get clean.” 

Percy was startled into a laugh. He twisted around to look at Luke. “I was turned into a guinea pig once. I do not miss being a rodent.” 

Luke smiled. “Who turned you into a guinea pig?” 

“Circe.” He faced the river again. 

Luke squeezed Percy’s shoulders. “I can’t help you get over a phobia. I’m sorry that you’re scared of the water. That’s got to be hard.” 

Percy nodded. 

Luke poured more water down Percy’s shoulders. It trickled partially down his chest. “Have you considered talking to a therapist?” 

“A therapist?” Percy wrinkled his nose. He could just imagine what they would say about him back at Camp, how disappointed Poseidon would be that Percy wasn’t handling his shit like a hero should be. 

“They’re actually pretty helpful,” Luke said. There was an edge of defensiveness in his tone of voice. 

Percy twisted his neck to look at Luke’s face again. This whole not facing each other thing was going to make his neck hurt. “How would you know?” 

“It turns out that they have therapists in Elysium,” Luke explained. He lifted his cupped hands up above their heads - no armpit hair, he really _did_ shave everything below his eyebrows - and let the water fall onto Percy’s head. “The whole being dead thing actually helps a lot with suspension of disbelief. No one thought I was crazy for talking about the gods.” 

“You talked to a therapist?” Percy repeated dumbly. He was trying to wrap his head around the idea of Luke asking for help. Then he realized that Luke _did_ ask for help, constantly, but everyone had denied him assistance. The idea that Luke had to die before someone would actually, truly, help him was depressing. It made Percy tired just thinking about the world they lived in. “So it helped?” 

Luke nodded. He scooped up more water and carefully dropped it in a way that turned Percy’s collarbones into tiny pools. Suddenly Luke lunged for something. He held it in his cupped hands. “Percy, look!” Luke said, voice turning high with excitement. “I caught a frog!” 

“A frog!” Percy exclaimed like he had never heard of such a marvel thing. He scrambled over to Luke, ignoring the hard rocks on his knees. He looked at the small frog that Luke held. It was greenish-yellow with black spots and smooth skin. “Aww, it’s little.” 

“Yeah!” Luke said excitedly. For a moment, he looked like the kid from the photo on May’s fireplace. Happy and carefree. Luke never got to have a proper childhood - much like Percy - and it showed in how open he was about his excitement. It also showed how much he trusted Percy. That trust and enthusiasm were contagious. 

“Can I hold it?” 

“No!” Luke held the frog away from Percy. “Get your own frog.” Just like a child. 

“What? Just for a minute! I’ll give it back!” Percy whined. 

“No way. Catch your own.” Luke glanced down at the little frog in his hands. 

Percy pouted. “Please!” 

Luke made a face at him. “Begging isn’t going to work.” 

Well it was worth a shot. Percy huffed and turned away, crossing his arms. He scanned the water for another frog. Surely there had to be more than one in the area. 

“Neither is sulking,” Luke said to his back. He held the frog less posessively, palms open to look at it. 

Percy huffed again. He spotted movement. Not a fish. He pounced, scooping up the little frog carefully. “Ha! I got one too and you can’t even _see_ it!” 

Luke gave him an incredulous look. “What? C’mon, I let you see mine.” 

“Nope.” Percy stuck his tongue out. “Them's the rules.” 

Luke scrunched his nose with annoyance. “Fine. I bet it looks just like my frog anyway.” 

“Nope,” Percy said. “Mine is cooler.” The truth was that the frogs looked identical but Percy wasn’t going to tell Luke that. 

Luke rolled his eyes. He was the first to let his frog go. “Let’s head back to the car and eat.” 

The sun had shifted while they were in the river, heading towards the western horizon. Just because the sun was beginning to set, didn’t mean that the temperature dropped noticeably. It was still way too hot for Percy’s taste. Percy let the frog go. They walked back along the same route they had taken and found the car exactly where they’d left it. “I guess we should find a hotel, too,” Percy said. 

Luke had left the car unlocked and it didn’t look like anyone had gotten into it. He opened the trunk and they both washed their hands with water and sanitizer. Then Luke pulled out their dinner; beef jerky, string cheese, and Hawaiian sweet rolls. There were little packets of butter that they’d stolen from a gas station and plastic knives. It wasn’t much, but it would hold them until they found a restaurant. 

They spread a blanket out on the hood of the car - the metal was too hot to touch directly - and sat on the hood to eat. They sat with their knees touching. It was very quiet in the middle of the desert; the main sound being the river rushing ten feet away from them. The longer they sat in silence and just minded their own business, the more obvious the wildlife became. Wildlife in the desert was on the smaller scale; lizards and birds mostly. Sometimes Percy would catch a glimpse of something small and furry. He could hear other things moving around in the underbrush but again, he didn’t think they were very big. The horses didn’t seem to have any predators out here. Coyotes, maybe, but where he came from the coyotes mostly ate pets left outside or out of trash cans. 

When dinner was over, the trash cleared away, and fresh water bottles opened, they stayed on the hood of the car. They both leaned back on their hands, so close that their arms crossed and their shoulders were touching. 

The sun was closer to going down and the sky had changed colors. The sky became a gradient of colors; yellow nearest the sun, turning into a vibrant blue and fading into a deeper blue at the east. The clouds were purple, highlighted with a glowing pinkish-orange underneath. The bright colors made everything in the foreground look black, like paper cutouts. It was gorgeous. 

Luke tipped his head to the side so that their temples were pressed together. 

Percy pushed back just enough to acknowledge the action before relaxing again. They were both sweaty and smelled like river water, the air was still too dry, and they may never get to live in peace...but for a shining moment, all felt right in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, how are we only on chapter 3? It's only been 3 months? Damn. Feels like last year.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico enters and exits the stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a treat for those of you who are 18+ Americans who voted for Biden this election. If you meet qualifications and _didn't_ vote for Biden then you can leave right now. I will still be uploading a chapter on the 18th of this month, so you'll get two for November. 
> 
> Songs Luke sings: [Rodeo by Garth Brooks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFT6Gkx7Cn4).
> 
> This chapter contains severe anxiety and mentions of suicide. Proceed with caution.

### “But here is the truth of nostalgia. We don’t feel it for who we were, but who we weren’t. We feel it in all the possibilities that were open to us, but that we didn’t take.” ― Welcome To Nightvale | A Memory Of Europe 

As they were on their way to find a hotel, they drove past a shooting range. “Why do they have a shooting range in a national forest?” 

“I dunno,” Luke said. “You wanna check it out? It sounds like they’re open.” 

Percy thought about his mom teaching herself how to shoot a shotgun and the machine gun on Mr. Chase’s airplane. “Yeah, okay.” He didn’t like guns because the whole point of them was to kill things and the noise hurt his ears. 

Luke turned onto the driveway and headed towards the part of the parking lot that had the most cars. There was a pretty diverse age-range, from teenagers to elders. They stood in groups of two or four, chatting by the light of the lodge. 

They got out of the car. Luke had Percy’s hoodie and a pair of jeans on; preemptive for when they found a hotel. He pocketed the keys and waited by the trunk for Percy to get out. 

Percy took a swig of water to calm his nerves, then he got out too. The board shorts and t-shirt he wore gave no sign that he’d been in the river earlier. 

The atmosphere seemed friendly. Some people smiled at them as they walked into the lodge. No one was carrying a gun, which Percy found odd. 

Percy shoved his hand into his pocket to curl around Riptide and tried not to look nervous. 

There was a small line in front of a counter so they went to the end. Luke was blatantly staring at the other patrons and listening in on their transactions. He slid an arm over Percy’s shoulders. “You look pale, which should be impossible considering how much sun we got.” 

“I don’t like guns,” Percy admitted quietly. His palms were sweaty. 

There was only one person ahead of them. 

“We can leave if you want,” Luke said. “I just thought it might be interesting. We’ve never really explored, uh, modern weapons.” 

“Luke, it’s been over two months and we haven’t run into a single...thing to hunt,” Percy said in a whisper. The days melted into each other and made it hard to keep track of time but this was the longest Percy had gone without killing anything since he was twelve. 

It was their turn. They stepped up and were greeted by a middle-aged woman. “Good evening! Are you here for our beginners class?” 

“Yes,” Percy said before Luke could speak. 

The woman smiled. “It will be five dollars for each of you. That includes the price of bullets, ear plugs, and eye protection. It will be ten bullets for each of you.” 

Luke had his credit card out before Percy could reach for his cash. He set it on the counter. “Sounds good,” he said. His arm was still around Percy’s shoulders. 

The woman swiped the card and handed it back with the receipt. Then she reached beneath the counter and pulled out two small boxes, two pairs of plastic glasses, and two little baggies with neon orange ear plugs in them. “Here you go, boys! Make sure you hang onto them and remember to bring them outside with you after the introduction speech.” 

“Thank you,” Luke said. He took his half. 

Percy took the rest of it. They found a table and sat down. All of the chairs were the rolling kind that you find in offices. That part was cool, at least. Percy set the box of bullets on the table. “Do you know why we haven’t seen anything? How have they not found us yet?” 

Luke sighed. “I don’t know for sure, but I think my dad is hiding us.” 

Percy tapped his nails against the table. He kept his voice low and steady when he asked, “Why would you think that?” 

Luke shook his head. “I’ll tell you later.” 

Percy wanted to argue but decided against it. There was no need to fight. Probably. His mind spun with possibilities. Why would Hermes want to hide them? Did he not want anyone to find Luke and send him back to the Underworld? Gods weren’t supposed to directly interfere...then again, Poseidon had done a lot for Percy. In fact, the gods helped him pretty much every time he asked for it. But could it really be so easy? There had to be some sort of catch here. 

As they sat, people began to file in from outside and take chairs around them. Their instructor was a ninety year old white woman. She gave them a brief history of the facility and herself and then explained the rules and what was going to happen. The woman turned out to be a trick shooter who had been shooting for more than sixty years. When her speech was over, everyone headed outside to the actual spot they’d be shooting. 

There were four instructors - including the old woman - and everyone would get a chance to work with each of them. The instructors were the only people holding guns, which made Percy feel a little better. Unless of course they turned out to be monsters. 

Everyone got into lines and the lesson started. The lessons were given individually by instructors, so it was a lot of waiting in line while people shot clay targets. Or, tried to. Most of them were lousy shots. 

Speaking of which, Percy said, “I can’t even shoot a bow and arrow.” 

Luke raised an eyebrow. “You _still_ haven’t learned to hit a target?” 

Percy shook his head. “I like using a sword.” 

“How on earth did you defeat Geryon?” 

It surprised Percy that Luke knew about that, then he realized that it shouldn’t surprise him. Luke had been kept well-informed about every move Percy made. “The queen bitch helped me.” Percy waited for lightning to strike him dead or a chariot of angry peacocks to come screeching down and run him over, but nothing happened. Maybe there really was something to that names have power thing people kept telling him. 

Luke swore softly. “Damn.” Then it was Luke’s turn. He missed the first clay plate but hit the second and third ones. 

Percy’s turn. He was uncomfortably aware of his heartbeat. 

The instructor handed him the gun and told him how to hold it and how to load the bullets. Then she corrected his grip. She gave a quick rundown on what to do. 

Percy didn’t like the weight of the gun. He didn’t like the cold metal. He took aim. All three times he pulled the trigger, he missed. Percy was more than happy to give the gun back. 

The group shifted around, switching instructors. Percy and Luke moved to the next line, somehow managing to get in front of everyone else. Luke went first again. He shot all three clay pieces. 

“How are you so good at this?” Percy asked as Luke stood off to the side and waited for him. He accepted the gun from the instructor and loaded his bullet. His heart still hadn’t calmed down. His feet were cold. Percy took aim and managed to hit one of the three clay plates. If he had been throwing a sword, he would have hit all of them. Even a knife or a spear was easier for him. 

Luke squeezed Percy’s shoulder. “I’ve got good aim.” 

Percy scowled. They went through the rest of their bullets with the other instructors. Luke did great but Percy missed more often than he hit. He couldn’t see himself doing this again. One class was more than enough. It was a relief when they were done. 

“They can’t all be winners,” Luke said with a smile as they headed back to the car.  
  
  
  


Later came, as it always does, and it found them in a hotel room. The air conditioning was turned on high enough that it was cold. After they showered, and turned the lights out, Luke stood by Percy’s bed. “Can I join you?” he asked quietly. 

Percy pulled the covers back and made room for Luke. He had a bad, bad feeling about whatever Luke was going to say. It couldn’t be good news. 

Luke climbed into bed wearing his sweater and, Percy now knew, women’s underwear. He pulled the covers up to his chin and laid on his side facing Percy. “I didn’t go straight to Camp Half-Blood when I got back to the States.” 

Percy’s heart sunk with every word. He didn’t want to hear this but he knew that he had to. Sometimes, you didn’t want the answer to a question. It was too late to back out now. “Where did you go?” Percy heard the words come from his mouth but he felt far away from them. 

“My mom’s house.” Luke’s voice wavered and became heavy like he carried the sky. “She…” Luke stopped and took a deep breath. “She’s dead.” 

“Oh!” Percy felt the exclamation pushed from his lungs. Why didn’t he check on May after the war? She should have regained her sanity after Hades’ curse on the Oracle was redacted. The ugly truth was that May Castellan had completely slipped Percy’s mind and he’d been happy to let her. His chest felt tight like a band wrapped around it. He reached for Luke’s hand, even though he didn’t deserve the comfort. 

Their fingers brushed and interlocked, and Luke squeezed Percy’s hand tight. “Dad sent me to check on her. She told him she needed space but he thought it would be okay if I visited her.” Luke was saying. His voice broke. “I had to cut her down.” 

For a moment there was a disconnect between what Luke said and Percy comprehending the words. Then Percy understood with sudden, terrible clarity. Guilt and regret slammed into Percy so hard that he couldn’t breathe. He squeezed Luke’s hand so hard that he felt the fine bones shifting. Cold adrenaline flooded his system. 

“Then dad was there and I’ve never seen him look like that,” Luke said, apparently unaware of Percy’s crisis. “We built a pyre in the backyard. Mom was estranged from the family. She didn’t have anyone but me and dad. And...and I left her...” Luke sobbed. They were broken, gasping sobs. 

Percy pulled Luke into a hug. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. He held Luke tight and rubbed small circles on his back like his mom did for him when he was sad. Inwardly, Percy cursed himself. He’d left a mentally ill woman alone in her house and hadn’t even thought to check on her. The idea that May regained her sanity and killed herself was devastating. No one escaped the touch of the gods. But even worse was that Luke was the one who found her. Her son found her hanging dead. 

If it had been his mother… 

Percy could live knowing that Sally was safe and happy living her new life with her new husband. He didn’t know what he would do if she killed herself. 

Luke’s sobs stopped and he caught his breath. “She killed herself while I was in Europe, wasting time deciding if I wanted to come back to the States or not.” He swallowed audibly. “I missed her by a few days.” 

Percy had to swallow a few times before he could speak. “How do you know?” 

Luke sat up and got out of bed. He found his backpack in the dark and unzipped it. There was the sound of plastic. When he came back, Luke sat on the edge of the bed and turned the light on. They were bathed in soft yellow light. Luke’s eyes were red and wet. He held a plastic ziploc bag with a folded letter in it. He offered this to Percy. 

Percy sat up and took the bag. He opened it and carefully pulled out the letter. There were two pages, Percy thought, and then realized it was two letters. One was addressed to Hermes and one to Luke; the two people May loved most in life. 

The letter to Hermes was a love letter and an apology. It berated Hermes for not taking better care of Luke and telling him that Luke’s return was a second chance. 

The letter to Luke was an apology. A very, very long apology. She asked him not to be mad at Hermes for her death; she’d asked for space knowing that Hermes would grant her request and then killed herself. May had expected Hermes to find her. Even after Luke’s resurrection and the return of her sanity, May hadn’t expected Luke to visit. She didn’t even expect him to read her goodbye letter. The letter was signed _love, Mama._

Percy carefully folded the letters and put them back in the ziploc. He reached for Luke again and pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m sorry, Luke.”  
  
  
  


Depression crept back to the forefront of Percy’s focus. It sat on his chest like the sky, squeezing the life from him. He didn’t want to wake up, which was rare for Percy. Lately he hadn’t been dreaming. No nightmares, no spying, no prophecies to haunt him. It was just blissful nothingness, so easy to fall into and so hard to crawl out of. 

They stayed in Arizona for two days longer than Percy meant to. This time was spent mostly sleeping. Percy woke up exhausted, only conscious long enough to take care of his body's needs, before he passed out again. 

For once, Luke was also sleeping for long stretches of time. Sometimes he slept alone and sometimes next to Percy. He cried too, tears silently streaming down his face. Now that Luke had spoken of May’s suicide, it seemed that he was getting it all out. 

On day three, Luke shook Percy awake. His red rimmed eyes were puffy. “Get up. We’re leaving.” He yanked the covers completely off the bed. 

Percy growled. 

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life sulking in a hotel in Arizona?” Luke asked, hands on his hips. He glared Percy down before going to the window and opening the curtains, letting in bright rays of sunlight. 

Percy hissed. He curled tighter and covered his eyes with both arms. 

“Quit being a baby.” 

“You keep calling me baby, why can’t I act like one?” 

“I’ve only called you baby four times.” 

“Why are you counting?” Percy reluctantly uncurled. He stretched, popping his spine, shoulders, and neck. It felt good to move again. “It’s too damn bright in here.” 

“We’re heading north,” Luke said with an eye roll. “So kiss the sun goodbye and prepare for rain.” He was already packed, Percy noted. Luke was restless, moving around the room at random, thrumming with impatient energy. Clearly _someone_ didn’t know how to have a good, long sulk. But that was ADHD kids for you; even while depressed, they had to keep moving. 

Percy got out of bed with all the speed of an old man. He stretched again when he was on his feet, locking his knees and reaching for his toes. When was the last time he worked out? Percy shuffled into the bathroom and pissed without bothering to close the door. He flushed the toilet, washed his hands, and looked in the mirror. He made a face of disgust when he saw himself. “I look like shit.” 

“Yeah you do,” came Luke’s voice from the main room. 

“So do you, asshole,” Percy said. His brush was on the counter, where he’d left it three days ago. It hadn’t moved in that time. He brushed his hair, frowned when it felt greasy. Did he really not shower for three days? It was hard to remember… “I’m taking a shower before we go.” Percy shucked off his boxers without waiting for a reply and got into the shower. He closed the shower door behind him. It was completely transparent so if Luke wandered by the bathroom - of which the door was still open - then he’d be getting a show. 

Luke didn’t reply and Percy didn’t see any movement in his peripherals. 

It felt good to shower off three days worth of depression grime. He almost felt like a person again. Percy took his time in the shower, thoroughly washing every inch of himself. When he was squeaky clean, Percy turned the water off and stepped out onto the mat. He left the water clinging to his skin and stood in front of the mirror with only a towel wrapped around his waist. His bag of toiletries was also on the counter where he had left it unused. Percy ran a hand over his jaw and decided a quick shave was in order. 

About five minutes later, Luke asked, “Are you still naked?” His voice was closer than Percy would have guessed; he was just on the other side of the wall. 

“Does a towel count as not naked?” Percy asked. He rinsed the razor off in the sink. Paul had taught him how to shave and Percy was glad that he had learned before going out in the world. Shaving made him miss Paul. 

Luke hummed and moved to lean against the doorframe. He gave Percy a quick once over before focusing his attention on Percy’s face. “I don’t think we really talked about it, but we, together,” he motioned between the two of them. “Are not stepping foot in California.” 

Percy was relieved that they were on the same page with that. Arizona was close enough to the Romans - and Clarisse - to make his skin prickle. Still, he was in the mood to be a little shit, so he said, “What happened to heads Carolina, tails California?” 

Luke did not look amused. “It turns out that that was not the perfect retirement song for us.” 

Percy hummed agreement. “We need a new theme song, then.” He ran a brush through his hair but it looked stupid when it was flat against his skull. He glanced at Luke. “Close your eyes.” 

Luke closed his eyes. “I just want to be on the same page.” 

Percy unwrapped his towel and used it to mess up his hair again. The gray hair stuck up in artistic, wild clumps that were a lot sexier than what he’d managed to do with a brush. He glanced at Luke - eyes still closed - then wrapped the towel around his waist again. “You can look. And we are on the same page.” 

Luke opened his eyes. They flicked downward again before his gaze settled around Percy’s shoulder area. “Good. Do you want to go through Utah or Nevada?” 

Percy’s hands shook while he opened the toothpaste and squirted it onto his toothbrush. His teeth felt gross and fuzzy. When was the last time he ate? That room service Mac n cheese was great comfort food for a sad soul. Wasn’t that a book series? “I’d rather avoid the Hoover Dam. Too many memories.” Percy considered. “And I hated Las Vegas.” 

“Utah it is, then.” 

Percy brushed his teeth. They didn’t have floss and he really wanted some right now. Next time they stopped at a store, he was going to pick up a pack. “Are you staring at me?” 

“No,” Luke lied. “I’m supervising.” 

Percy raised an eyebrow at Luke’s reflection. “I know how to brush my teeth, dad.” He spit into the sink. 

Luke snorted. He looked serious. “Look, I know that we’re sad, and we've got a lot of reasons to be sad, and a lot of unresolved trauma weighing us down, and it feels good to lay in bed for days doing absolutely nothing, but…” Luke paused, eyes unfocusing. “But we’re also alive, and we’ve got each other, and we’re putting that shit behind us. I kind of feel...optimistic? For once. And I want to hang onto that feeling.” 

Percy didn’t feel optimistic. He knew this couldn’t last. Someone would find them sometime. Percy didn’t want to be found, didn’t want to be dragged back to his place on the chessboard of the Olympians. Settling down and starting a family with Annabeth seemed like a bullet he’d dodged instead of a dream he’d had not too long ago. But he knew what Luke was saying. “Yeah. Let’s enjoy it.” 

Luke’s smile was warm and sweet as honey. He disappeared back into the bedroom. 

Percy packed up his toiletries. He was mostly dry by now, all the water having rolled or evaporated off of him. He went out to the bedroom and found Luke setting out his clothes. “You really want to leave this hotel, don’t you?” 

Luke went and perched on the opposite bed, facing away from Percy. “I spent three days crying in here. If I have to see this hotel room for longer than necessary, I’m gonna flip my shit.” 

“Okay.” Percy got dressed in what Luke had put out for him; a clean pair of blue jeans and his Space Ace t-shirt. He packed up the rest of his things, which wasn’t hard since he’d been wearing the same clothes for days. Percy patted his pocket to check for Riptide and was pleased to find the pen there. “Alright, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” 

“Oh my gods,” Luke muttered as he shouldered his bag. He grabbed the room keys on the way out so they could return them to the front desk. 

“I wonder where that saying came from,” Percy mused as they walked down the hallway. 

“I dunno but it sounds gay as fuck,” Luke decided. He kept a straight face for all of four seconds before laughing. 

Percy rolled his eyes and laughed with him. Laughter felt weird and good. They needed to laugh more. 

Luke made Percy drive, which was good because Percy would have fallen asleep again in the passenger seat if he wasn’t driving. They drove the five hours to northern Arizona and finally stopped at a Denny’s for breakfast. They weren’t quite into Utah but it was close enough. 

Percy ordered blueberry pancakes, bacon, and sausage. He got a Coke in the hopes that the caffeine would keep him awake when it was Luke’s turn to drive. 

Luke chose berry vanilla French crepes, with hashbrowns, eggs, and sausage. He got coffee. While they waited on their food, Luke got up to go look at the brochures by the door. 

Percy looked around the restaurant. There were a lot of people here, mostly old people, and they all seemed to be talking. He couldn’t smell monsters nearby and just thinking about it reminded him of May Castellan’s death. Percy didn’t want to think about how he had failed another person. 

Luke came back just in time to eat. The pocket of his hoodie was fuller and pointier than it had been when he left. He spread them out on the table. “We have a lot of living left to do.”  
  
  
  


They stood on top of a mountain in Utah, looking out at the orange desert beneath them. They were the only ones stupid enough to go hiking in this heat so they had the trail to themselves. Percy cupped his hands and howled into them. The sound carried far over the flat landscape. 

Luke looked at him, a slightly bewildered expression on his face. Then he cupped his hands and howled too. 

Percy flashed Luke an encouraging smile. Then he howled again, and again. He dropped his hands, tipped his head back and howled until his lungs strained. It was like screaming, except he wasn’t angry or scared; he just wanted to let it all out, to let the world know that he was still here. When he ran with Lupa’s pack, there had been a lot of howling; howling in fun, howling in challenge, in victory, in loneliness. 

Luke’s howl, much like his normal voice, held deep sorrow in it. But it was also sweet and deep and held just a flicker of hope. A note that said he was hoping for better and maybe it was within reach now. He howled with Percy and he howled in the beats between Percy’s howls so that the air was always filled with their voices. 

When his throat was dry, Percy stopped for a drink. He felt energized, refreshed. He sat down on the ground and looked out at the world. Utah was pretty, he decided. A surprising amount of greenery for being desert and most of the rocks were orange. There were flat planes between the hills and mountains. But it was hotter than he would like. Probably in the eighties. Other people hiked the trails earlier but it was noon again so most people had the sense to beat the heat. Not them, apparently. All demigods must have a dumbass gene inherited from the gods. 

Luke sat beside him. “It’s going to get cold soon,” he said. “We need to go shopping for warmer clothes and get chains for Darling’s tires.” 

Percy nodded agreement. “How far north are we going?” 

Luke shrugged. “As far as we want. Depends on if you want to spend winter in Alaska or stick to the lower forty-eight.” 

Percy tried to imagine spending winter in a place without sunlight, where the temperatures got so low that the air could freeze your lungs. “Maybe we can visit Alaska next summer?” The implication being that they would still be together next summer. 

Luke’s smile radiated warmth. “Yeah. That sounds good.”  
  
  
  


“I’m going to say something and I don’t think you’ll like it,” Luke said. He was reading in the passenger seat, nearly through the book he’d picked up in the Midwest. He didn’t lift his gaze from its pages. 

“Okay,” Percy said warily. He didn’t have a clue what Luke wanted to talk about but he mentally braced himself. 

“Do you remember the Labyrinth?” Luke asked. 

“Yeah,” Percy said. 

“Do you remember your half brother? The one you killed.” 

Percy didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t even know why Luke would bring it up. “I remember.” 

“Right,” Luke said. He still wasn’t looking at Percy. His brow was furrowed. “So you remember how he dedicated every kill to, uh, your dad?” 

Percy’s nerves got the better of him and he snapped, “Luke, my memory works just fine.” 

Luke glanced at him, briefly, before dropping his eyes back to the book. “Did you ever...ask him about it? Your dad, I mean.” 

Percy gripped the steering wheel hard. His back teeth ground together. Why on earth did Luke want to know about this? “Is there a point to this?” 

“I have a theory about why your dad let him keep killing in his name,” Luke said. Then he rolled his eyes. “Oh don’t look so surprised. You act like I couldn’t read your facial expressions.” 

Percy struggled on how to respond to that. There was so much he could say to that but he really didn’t want to fight. Luke had _warned_ him. Finally he sighed and asked, “What’s your theory?” 

“Every death in the name of a god or demigod gives the named person a power boost. A blood sacrifice packs a bigger punch than burnt food offerings and not a lot of people are in the habit of ritual sacrifice to the gods anymore. So I think that your dad allowed it because it made him more powerful than the other gods.” Luke was no longer looking at the book open on his lap. His eyes were on Percy, studying his reaction. 

Percy stared at the black asphalt being eaten up by the car. He stared at it until he couldn’t see the lines on the road because his eyes were getting blurry. His knee jerk reaction was to deny Luke’s theory. Thinking about it critically, about Poseidon critically, Percy had to admit that when he asked, Poseidon did brush him off. Not only that, but the other gods combined couldn’t defeat Typhon, not until Poseidon joined them. And really, there was a reason sacrificing lives to the gods used to be so important. It fit a bit too neatly for Percy’s liking. After a few miles, Percy said, “I think your theory is right.” 

If he had been Annabeth, this would have been the time when Luke said _I told you so._ Thankfully, Luke wasn’t Annabeth. He shifted so that his foot rested on Percy’s thigh in silent comfort. A long while later, Luke said, “It works with demigods too.” 

Percy glanced at Luke. 

Luke met his eye and then shrugged. “I just thought it was interesting.”  
  
  
  


The desert around them looked like something from a Loony Toons cartoon. The idea that something like this huge, empty desert really existed had been unfathomable. Because this _also_ wasn’t what Percy pictured when he imagined the desert. There was only the road and the power lines stretching across endless orange stone. The sun had set a few hours ago and they hadn’t encountered a car since before then. 

Luke dozed in the passenger seat, his book marked with a finger between the pages. 

Percy couldn’t say what compelled him, but he slowed the car and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He peered out through the windshield into the dark desert. There was nothing here. It felt like something was here, though. His veins were singing like they did when he was near the ocean. But this was Utah. How could there be ocean here? Percy bit his lip. Unless this was like the Triple G Ranch that Geryon ran in Texas. Not for the first time, it occured to Percy that he should look into the past a little. 

“Are we there?” Luke asked, voice slurred with sleep. He woke slowly as he always did, rubbing his eyes and yawning. 

“No,” Percy admitted. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. “I feel something.” 

That woke Luke up a lot quicker. He followed Percy out the drivers door. “What kind of something?” The tri-dagger was in his hand, magicked out of who knew where. Luke wasn’t wearing anything with pockets at the moment. 

Percy smoothed a hand over Luke’s curly hair. He offered a reassuring smile. “Nothing like that. Just…” Percy moved his hand through the air. “It feels like water.” He left Luke in the driver's seat and walked around to sit on the hood of the car. 

Luke stood and stretched luxuriously before following Percy. He sat beside him, tri-dagger still in his hand just in case. His eyes were on Percy. “I don’t feel it.” 

Percy drummed his fingers against the hood of the car. “I swear I haven’t gone crazy. It feels like being in the ocean.” 

Luke licked his lips. He looked around, briefly, then back at Percy. “I don’t think you’ve gone crazy. This whole place used to be underwater...like millions of years ago.” 

“Really?” Percy asked. He imagined what that would be like, this whole place underwater. Billions of gallons of saltwater over them. The creatures living here; so different from modern day fish but just as intriguing and colorful and dangerous. Percy knew some of them off the top of his head; megalodon, mosasaurs, kronosaurus (why did such a loser get a dinosaur named after him), dunkleosteus, liopleurodon. When he was a kid, he’d loved prehistoric fish and aquatic dinosaurs. 

They sat, each lost in their own thoughts. That was when the first fish swam by. Percy gasped. “Did you see that?” He gripped Luke’s arm tightly. 

Luke rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. I see it.” He pointed. “There’s more.” 

Sure enough, there were more and every single one of them glowed. A whole school of small yellow fish with hard plated scales covering their bodies. They had a certain look to them that placed them as being much older than modern day fish. The school was joined quickly by more and more different schools of fish. Then the jellyfish drifted by and the squid with hard shells. Along the ground were crabs and starfish but they all looked different than what Percy knew lived in his oceans. 

Percy looked around, still clinging to Luke’s arm. He reached out to touch one but it swam through him. The feeling was cool, like walking through mist. The fish didn’t react at all to his presence. 

“They’re all transparent,” Luke muttered. “Like ghosts.” 

“Maybe they are ghosts,” Percy said softly. Their fossils might have been buried in the dirt beneath their feet. “There aren’t any predators.” 

Luke hummed. He slung an arm around Percy’s shoulder and laid them down against the windshield. “Not yet. Prey always outnumbers predators, though. If there were more predators than prey, then the predators would starve.” 

Percy tucked his head against the crook of Luke’s neck and stared up at the glowing display above them. They watched as huge, sleek whales swam by them. The whales were fast, so fast that they were like rockets. “I can’t hear them,” he realized. “I can see them and I can kind of feel them, but I can’t hear them.” 

Luke hummed acknowledgement. After a few minutes of watching, he pointed to something swimming toward them. It was huge enough that it sent a shiver down Percy’s spine and it glowed a deceptive white. “There’s your predator.” 

The predator - and Percy wasn’t even sure what it was, it was so old - swam lazily over them. It didn’t seem to be hunting. Still, the presence of something that big with that many teeth, made Percy nervous. Its size was about fifty-two feet long and a body like that...it must have weighed at least fifty tons. When the great white predator swam over them and disappeared, Percy let out a sigh of relief. He got the feeling that the fish were also letting out a sigh of relief, even as ghosts. 

“Do you think they know they’re dead?” Luke asked. 

Percy wished he could see Luke’s face. “I don’t know.” He watched something that looked vaguely like a manta ray, except it was twenty feet long, snatch up a fish. “They don’t seem to know.” 

“Maybe they just don’t care.” 

“Do you think they’ll send you back to Elysium?” Percy whispered. He almost hoped that Luke wouldn’t hear him. The answer to that question could be...devastating. 

Luke gave Percy a light squeeze. “I dunno. Maybe if I stay out of trouble.” 

“Would that count as your second time?” 

There was a long pause before Luke whispered, “I dunno, Percy.”  
  
  
  


They drove through the next day, only stopping to eat, before finding a hotel. It felt good to sleep in a real bed again, with air conditioning. Something woke Percy from sleep. It was a constant, annoying beeping. He groaned and blinked at the clock. The red numbers said 3:00am. 

“What is that noise?” Luke asked from the other bed. He had his pillow pulled over his head. 

“Alarm clock,” Percy said. He fumbled with it until it stopped beeping. “Haven’t you heard an alarm clock?” 

“When would I have ever used one?” Luke growled. He pulled his pillow off his head and laid with his cheek pressed to the mattress. 

“Touché,” Percy mumbled. He closed his eyes and settled back into sleep. 

Eight minutes later, the alarm started again. 

Luke growled. 

Percy groaned and ripped the thing from the wall. “Sorry. I must have hit snooze.” 

“Who’s fucking idea was it to invent an alarm clock?” Luke complained. He rolled onto his side with his back to Percy. 

Percy yawned and settled down again. It was too early to be awake. He lay with his eyes closed, waiting for sleep to come to him. Instead, his brain wondered who would set an alarm in a hotel room for three am. What kind of asshole was this person? What business did they have at three am? Percy rolled over to the cool side of the bed. He stared at the ceiling, barely visible thanks to the hall light that came under their door. It was awfully dark in here, even with that light. A trickle of unease went down his spine. What if Nico was hiding in the shadows? Watching them sleep... 

Percy sat up. 

“What are you doing?” Luke asked. He rolled over to face Percy. “Are you okay?” 

Percy reached over and turned on the bedside light. The soft yellow glow didn’t do much to ease the shadows. Was that shadow in the corner darker? 

“Percy?” Luke had sat up now. 

“It was just...dark,” Percy said. “Stupid alarm woke me up.” He looked around their room. 

“Yeah. Me too.” Luke agreed. He was looking at Percy like he didn’t believe that was the reason he was awake. “Well now that we’re up, do you want to get an early start?” 

Percy nodded. He hopped out of bed and pulled on his jeans. He yanked a t-shirt over his head that read _May The Fish Be With You._ They got their stuff together - pretty easy since they were always ready to go - and were in the car fifteen minutes later. Percy drove, since they were in a city. He kept glancing toward the East, waiting for the sun to rise. He thought the back seat looked darker than it should. 

Luke of course picked up on Percy’s nervous energy. He bounced his leg and cracked his knuckles repeatedly. He twisted around to look out the rear window, checked his mirror, looked at Percy, then faced forward until compulsion forced him to do the whole thing all over again. 

It was noon before Percy stopped driving. They were in the middle of the desert. He jerked his chin for Luke to follow and got out of the car, pocketing the keys. He walked away from the car, sure that Luke would follow him. 

A few seconds later he heard the car door slam shut and Luke’s sneakers in the gravelly dirt. The sound of his footsteps was familiar. “What are we doing?” 

“I think we’ve been found,” Percy said when they were far enough away from the car. Nico could hide in shadows, but only ones that were big enough to fit him. He worked better in buildings or forests; here a random shadow would be conspicuous. 

Luke’s face paled. “By who?” 

“Nico. The son of...um...our friend downstairs.” Percy looked at the car over Luke’s shoulder. It didn’t have tinted windows but he couldn’t see through the other side. “I think he’s in the car right now. I think he was in our last hotel room.” 

Luke frowned. He looked over his shoulder and then back at Percy. “I didn’t smell him.” 

“He’s got a subtle scent. Like old bones,” Percy explained. He blinked and he could see in through one window and out the other. Nico had left the car. Percy jerked his chin in the direction of the car. 

Luke looked and his frown deepened. “What do you want to do about it?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“How did he find us?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“Do you think he’ll come back?” 

Percy nodded. “We need to find out how he found us. If your dad isn’t still hiding us, then we’re in big trouble.” 

Luke nodded. “For now we should act normal. We’ll let him come to us and make the first move.” 

“Okay.” 

“Okay.” They walked back to the car. It no longer felt like a safe haven. Now that Percy was sniffing the air inside the car with purpose, he could catch Nico’s scent. 

Luke seemed to catch it too because he scowled. 

“So now you don’t like the smell of other demigods?” Percy asked, only partially teasing. 

Luke looked offended. “Percy, I would never invite someone into the car. Darling is our space.” 

When Percy thought about it, he realized Luke was telling the truth. He never invited anyone to the car, even though the backseat looked like it was made to be fucked on. Percy pulled back onto the road. He was driving distracted, lost in his thoughts, barely paying attention to the road so he missed the billboard. 

“We should go to the county fair,” Luke said. 

“What?” 

“We should -” 

Percy’s brain caught up with what Luke had said. “Where is it?” He’d never been to a county fair. The very concept seemed like something out of a child’s dream. Percy didn’t get to spend a lot of time doing normal kid things, so the idea of going to the fair almost made him giddy. Almost. There was still the matter of Nico and _how had he found them?_

They found the county fair set up in a large stretch of desert. It was impossible to miss. There was a Ferris wheel and multi-colored tents. The county fair was huge as there were quite possibly thousands of people. They were mostly of the nuclear family type; parents with their two point five children or young couples who would have two point five children in the next three years. That was just the attendees; there was also security personnel wearing blue shirts and khaki pants, various food vendors in their bright yellow shirts, and staff walking around in costumes. 

It was similar to Pride in that the event was colorful and there was a lot of deep fried food but that was where the similarities ended. The county fair had game booths, rides, animals, and were wilder in what they would deep fry. There wasn’t a rainbow in sight and no one seemed to be aggressively having a good time. And there weren’t any hecklers telling attendees that they were going to hell. 

Percy eyed a roller coaster. It was small, went around on a track that wasn’t even as big as a basketball court. “Do you think we’d die on those?” The Ferris wheel didn’t seem like a big deal but right next to it was a ride that spun you around while moving and a giant ship that spun almost upside down. 

Luke studied the rides. “Dunno.” He paled a little looking at the ship ride. “They look like death traps.” 

Percy shaded his eyes to watch the ship turn almost upside down at the crest. No one fell out despite the apparent lack of seatbelts. He looked at the metal platform the ship rested on and shivered. The fall would be bad enough - body hitting the unevenly placed metal poles - but then the ship would come roaring past and make a red streak of the person unlucky enough to have fallen. “Is it weird that I’d rather fly upside down on Blackjack?” 

Luke shook his head. “I’d rather take my chances riding Blackjack upside down than riding that thing. It looks like it’s one whim away from giving painful death.” 

Percy laughed. “We’ll skip the rides,” he said as he looped his arm through Lukes. 

“We should do the Ferris wheel,” Luke said dubiously. He allowed Percy to pull him away from the rides and toward the game booths. 

Percy made a face. “Do you think it’s safe?” He stopped at the first empty booth and slapped some money on the counter. The game was duck hunting. More guns. Percy sighed and pushed Luke toward the mounted gun on the booth. “It seems like the thing that would roll us to our deaths.” 

“All of our rides are safe,” said the person manning the booth. They sounded like they smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. To Luke, the person said, “The game will start and you get five rounds of ammunition. Knock down one duck, you get a keychain. Knock down two, you get a hand-sized plush. Three, a medium-sized plush. Four, a large plush. And if you hit five, you get the extra large plush.” As they spoke, they gestured to the hanging stuffed animals. 

Luke looked to Percy. “Which one do you want?” 

Percy pointed to the largest one, an XL-sized panda. It wasn’t at all practical to carry around with them and would only take up space in the backseat, but by the gods Percy wanted it. 

Luke won it within five minutes. Judging by the look on the worker’s face, it wasn’t supposed to be that easy to beat the game. He handed Percy the giant panda plushie. “Lets put in the car so that we don’t have to lug it around.” 

They made a quick trip back to the car and then it was back to the games. Even though they won more often than they lost - which is to say Luke constantly won and Percy lost pretty frequently - they didn’t always collect prizes. They were living in a car, after all, and there was only so much room for cheap fair prizes. 

Percy kept an eye out for dark shadows or boys with leather aviator jackets. He suspected that Nico would show himself sometime. But as the day dragged on and there was no sign of Nico, Percy was beginning to get desperate. The sooner they got rid of their shadow, the better. They rode the ferris wheel and only when they were at the very top did Percy explain his latest plan to draw Nico out. 

Luke smirked, only too happy to agree. “If you think that’ll work.” 

His smirk made butterflies flit around Percy’s stomach. 

As soon as they were off the ferris wheel, Luke pulled Percy toward the house of mirrors. It was the darkest place in the park and they hadn’t been inside yet. There were lights running along the floor but the place was meant to be a little spooky and confusing. As the day got hotter and hotter, the fairgrounds became less crowded. Once they were inside and thoroughly lost in the maze - at least Percy was - Luke backed Percy up against a mirror. 

Percy’s heart hammered so hard that he thought Luke could hear it. They were alone in the warm dark, the sounds of the park distant. They still held hands. Percy licked his lips. 

The action drew Luke’s attention down to them. They were the same height but Luke seemed to tower over Percy, to fill his vision. No matter where Percy looked, he could see the two of them. Luke cupped his face with one scarred hand. He looked into Percy’s eyes, searching. 

Percy tilted his head slightly, nuzzling into Luke’s touch. He let his eyes go half-lidded. His face was warm, flushed with excitement. 

Luke pressed the length of his body against Percy’s, pinning him against the mirror. His lips were only a breaths distance away from Percy’s. He squeezed Percy’s hand and his eyes flicked to the side. They had an audience. 

As one they pounced on the boy in the shadows. Nico hadn’t been expecting it. He was rarely caught spying. He went down with a yelp and found Luke’s tri-dagger pointed at his throat. 

“Didn’t anyone teach you that it isn’t nice to spy on people?” Luke purred. 

“That’s rich, coming from you!” Nico spat. 

Percy squatted down so that he could look Nico in the eye. “Well now that we’ve caught you, how about we buy you some ice cream and you tell us what the fuck you’re doing here, Nico.” 

Nico hesitated but with Luke’s dagger to his throat, he didn’t have much choice. “Ice cream sounds good,” he mumbled. 

Percy nodded to Luke. 

Luke sheathed his dagger and rose to stand beside Percy. 

They walked out of the house of mirrors without speaking again. It wasn’t until they were in line to get ice cream that Percy turned his attention back to Nico. The boy looked paler than Percy remembered and he was still pitifully skinny. “What kind of ice cream do you want?” 

Nico looked at the menu and his face turned a little green. “Strawberry,” he mumbled. His dark eyes looked between Percy and Luke and his face turned bright red. 

Percy ignored it. “So what do you want?” Before Nico could reply, he clarified, “Not ice cream.” 

“We need your help. Apollo was turned mortal.” 

Percy flinched at the sound of the sun god’s name. They had been very careful about not saying the names of the gods and here Nico was throwing them around flippantly. 

“Did you say he’s mortal?” Luke asked. He stepped up to the window and ordered their ice cream. 

“Yes,” Nico confirmed grimly. He was probably remembering that his boyfriend was Apollo’s son. 

“Has he tried to get in your pants yet?” Percy asked. 

Nico’s face turned a darker shade of red. “He wants your help regaining his immortality.” 

Percy laughed bitterly. He leaned against Luke. “Those bastards always want something from me. I told them I’m not helping anyone do anything anymore. They can figure it out on their own.” Now that they’d been caught, he was wondering if he could really shapeshift into a fish. The problem with doing that - aside from being in the desert - was that he would be leaving Luke alone. 

They got their ice cream and found a picnic table to sit at. Luke had mint, Percy had chocolate and vanilla mixed together, and Nico got strawberry. Luke and Percy sat side by side, with Nico on the bench opposite them. 

Nico ate a few bites of his ice cream. His expression was contemplative. He probably hadn’t been expecting to get caught. Slowly, he reached out and the shadows around Nico seemed to get darker. 

“Don’t fucking touch us,” Percy snarled at Nico. He went back to eating his ice cream, forcing himself to look like nothing was wrong. Under the table, he crossed his leg over Luke’s. If Nico did try to shadow-travel them out of there, then they would go together. “How did you find us?” 

Nico’s expression was full of pain and surprise, as though he’d been bitten by the family dog. But he did pull his hand back. He looked between Luke and Percy before pulling a cell phone from his pocket. He fiddled with it and then held the screen up so that they could see. 

Percy had never seen himself on film but he recognized himself and Luke on the empty stage at Pridefest. Luke sang the last lines of the song and then they spun around. When they came to a stop, they stayed in each other's arms and pressed their foreheads together. The camera didn’t pick up what they were saying but it didn’t need to. Text suddenly flashed across the screen. _#couplegoals! #pride2010_ When it was done, the video began replaying. 

Percy felt the world tip on its axis. If he hadn’t known it was them… He found that he couldn’t meet Luke’s eye. 

“You’ve been following us since this?” Luke asked, sounding worried. 

Nico shook his head. “I’ve been following you since Arizona.” This was said with a guilty look at Percy. 

Rage bubbled within Percy until his vision turned red with it. More stalking. It was invasive enough when Annabeth did it. But this felt so much more violating. Percy and Luke shared intimate moments together, they cried together, they slept together. It was such a violation of their privacy. And done by _Nico-leave-me-alone-di-Angelo_ no less. Percy was on his feet, his fist curled in Nico’s shirt before he knew it. He dragged Nico halfway across the table. “I’m real fucking tired of being stalked,” Percy growled lowly. “Does anyone else know where we are?” 

Nico glanced at Luke. 

“Don’t look at him. He isn’t my keeper and he isn’t going to rescue you,” Percy spat. He moved his hand up to curl around Nico’s slender throat. Slowly he repeated. “Does anyone else know where we are?” 

Nico’s pale face turned steadily red. His eyes grew wide, black holes wanting to swallow Percy up. He shook his head very rapidly, hair flying into his eyes. “No one,” he mouthed. 

Percy narrowed his eyes. He pushed Nico backward, ignored the way that the boy toppled over the bench seat and onto his ass. Then he sat down hard, scooped up some ice cream and angrily shoved it in his mouth. “I don’t think I believe you.” 

Nico put a hand to his throat. The look he gave Percy was one of utter betrayal. “I didn’t tell anyone.” 

“Why?” Luke asked. “I doubt we’re lucky enough that you’re the only one looking for us.” He’d remained calm the entire time, eating his ice cream with complete detachment. 

Nico’s face turned even redder than when Percy was strangling him. He looked down. “I...I just…” He trailed off and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. The longer his hair got, the more he looked like Bianca. They both had the same thick black hair. Although Nico was much, much thinner. “Since you left, Annabeth has been making life at Camp Half-Blood hell for everyone. She wants to send out search parties and put everyone in danger...despite what your note said. She’s half convinced that...Luke...kidnapped you.” 

“I have never kidnapped anyone in my life,” Luke said mildly. 

Percy snorted and rolled his eyes. The news so far was troubling. He knew that Annabeth had gone mad looking for him when Hera took him but this...it felt worse. He signaled for Nico to continue. 

Nico looked between them like he wanted to say something but he didn’t. His gaze dropped down again and his frown deepened when he realized that Percy’s ankle was hooked around Luke’s. “Um, right. So none of the gods are helping and that shield she got from Daedalus is broken so she can’t just ask it to reveal you. Annabeth’s been working on fixing it but it’s...giving her problems still. I volunteered to go looking for you if she’d keep everyone at Camp.” 

“And you found us thanks to...the video,” Luke confirmed. 

Nico nodded. 

“So why haven’t you told the Camp?” Luke repeated. His ice cream was nearly gone. 

Percy said, “Get off the goddamn ground, Nico, and eat your ice cream.” 

“Are you just going to throw me back onto the ground?” Nico countered. 

Percy narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to keep being a voyeuristic piece of shit stalker?” 

Nico’s lips thinned with displeasure. He got up and brushed off his ass before sitting down. He didn’t touch his melting ice cream. “What happened to you?” This was asked with a side eye to Luke. 

Percy snapped his fingers. “What _happened_ to me?” he repeated incredulously. “I went through two wars, I went through literal hell, my friends died all around me or just went missing and were never heard from again, I killed people, I’ve been used and manipulated and every time I turned around someone new was trying to kill me. People don’t like being around me unless they gain something from it. It turned out that my ex-girlfriend was actually a piece of shit and was terrible for my self esteem and my health.” Percy ticked off on his fingers with every awful thing. “What else do you want? I’ve been poisoned, stabbed, burned alive. I’ve drowned, I’ve been transformed into a rodent, my memories were stolen from me. I’ve been homeless and I’ve been abused at home and at school and at Camp. I’m never going to see my mom or anyone that I knew from before ever again because I would rather die than get dragged back into demigod life.” 

Nico’s shoulders rose higher the longer he listened and his eyes got wider. He looked like he wanted to melt into the shadows and disappear. 

“I’m fucking tired, Nico. Tired of all of it. The last war was it. That’s my breaking point.” Percy was sure that he hadn’t yet reached his breaking point because when he did, there would be floods. But it was close enough that he saw the signs and knew he needed to get away. “Luke is the best thing to happen to me in my entire life, which is saying something because for a while he was one of the worst things in my life.” 

Under the table, Luke put a hand on Percy’s thigh. 

Percy put his hand over Luke’s. He looked at Nico, waiting for a response. 

“I...I can tell,” Nico admitted quietly. He turned his face and glared. “You two seem...happy together. And that’s...why I haven’t told anyone that I found you.” 

There was a lot to unpack in that statement but Percy didn’t want to. He wasn’t interested in playing mind games with Nico. Instead, he uncapped Riptide. “Good. Now that we’re all caught up…” Percy pointed Riptide at Nico’s throat. It wasn’t a real threat because Nico could just vanish if he wanted to or even let himself fall off the bench to get away from Percy’s sword. “If you ever respected me, you’ll stop spying on me and help me hide from Annabeth and the rest of them.” 

Nico looked stunned. Then he looked into Percy’s face. His expression fell. “I won’t tell anyone.” 

“Swear it on the River Styx,” Percy said. 

Nico’s eyes widened fractionally. He hesitated. Then he spat out, “I swear it on the River Styx.” 

“Good,” Percy repeated. He finally let his hackles fall. He sheathed Riptide. None of the mortals had even looked in their direction. 

If the way Luke was leaning on him was any indication, it was his manipulating the Mist that kept their eyes from seeing the trio. 

Now that they were safe for a little while longer, Percy could relax. He rested his cheek against the top of Luke’s head. “So, Nico, do you wanna hang out with us while we’re at the fair?” 

Nico hesitated. He looked around. Then he nodded shyly. Some time later, he asked, “Is that a tattoo?” 

Percy pulled out a business card but didn’t hand it over. “I will give you this under the condition that you do not let Annabeth ever see it or know where you got it.” 

Nico nodded. “I won’t let anyone find it.” 

Percy handed it over. He had a little less than half of the business cards left to hand out. 

Now that they weren’t being hunted and Nico wasn’t hiding, now that they’d gotten the unpleasant business out of the way, it was actually nice to hang out with Nico at the fair. Sort of. Nico kept staring at him and Luke and his face stayed red the whole time. It was so obvious to Percy that Nico still had feelings for him. Percy didn’t really see what was so great about himself that Nico was so infatuated with him but it was what it was. Nico didn’t bring his feelings up and they parted ways as the sun went down.  
  
  
  


Later in their hotel room, safe for the moment from prying eyes, Percy crept from his bed to Luke’s. The shadows were no darker than should be normal. “Can I cry on you?” Percy asked. His eyes prickled with unshed tears. 

Luke pulled back the covers. “C’mere,” he whispered. 

Percy crawled into bed beside Luke, right into his arms. He broke as Luke’s arms came around him, sobbing. It wasn’t pretty or dignified. Percy sobbed until his throat felt raw and his face hurt from crying. His heart was broken. Seeing Nico in the flesh had hurt more than he expected. 

Being the one to reject Nico hurt more than he imagined it could. He didn’t know how anyone could do it. He didn’t know how Nico could reject Percy over and over again. Didn’t it hurt? If it did, then Nico had the best poker face Percy had ever seen. Not to mention the way Percy had lost his temper. Like a child. 

When Percy’s tears dried, he continued to lay against Luke. His mind was still on Nico, on what could have been if he’d known. If Percy has been given the chance to know before it was too late. Would Nico be where Luke is now, curled around Percy in some anonymous hotel? Maybe. Camp Half-Blood turned out to be nothing but pretty fools gold; shiny and exciting upon first glance but ultimately worthless. Will was the only reason that Nico would spend any time at Camp Half-Blood and even then, Percy had gone entire days without seeing hide nor hair of Hades’ son. 

Whether or not Nico would abandon everyone he knew to go on an impossible road trip with Percy wasn’t even the biggest concern. The real question was if Nico would respect Percy’s asexuality or if he would push and take like Annabeth. For someone who looked like a walking corpse, Nico’s blood ran _very_ hot. If the rumors were true, anyway. Juniper had told Percy and Annabeth what the dryads had seen Nico and Will get up to in the forest and there were rumors that Will’s bunk in the Apollo cabin was empty most nights. Sure, Will was always there for curfew and he was always back in bed before the sun rose, but he had a boyfriend who could teleport. If Nico was willing to risk his health and literally dying just to roll around with Will, then it seemed to Percy that he wouldn’t be interested in how cool and still Percy’s blood was. 

“Luke,” Percy whispered because he knew by Luke’s breathing that he was still awake. 

“Hmm?” Luke rubbed circles against the small of Percy’s back, always unerringly finding the long-gone Achilles heel. It still made Percy break out into goosebumps and he thought maybe one day he should tell Luke about it. 

That wasn’t the weak spot Percy wanted to talk about tonight. “Does my being asexual bother you?” 

Luke's hand stilled and there was a pause before he spoke. “No?” It sounded more like a question than an answer. “It doesn’t bother me. Why are you asking?” 

Percy’s face warmed. “Just thinking…” 

Luke’s hand returned to motion. “Thinking about…?” 

“I just don’t think Nico would be as cool about it as you are,” Percy admitted. 

Luke hummed. His fingers tapped against Percy’s spine. He seemed to be thinking so Percy let him do it uninterrupted. “Well,” he said slowly. “We ain’t dating but if we were...you wouldn’t have to worry about me forcing you into anything. I’m not an animal ruled by lust.” 

Percy snorted. 

Luke rolled his eyes. “I like sex but I can do just fine on my own.” 

“Isn’t sex your number one thing?” Percy asked. “Right before Mac n cheese.” 

Luke laughed. “No. Sex just ranks higher than Mac n cheese on my List Of Things I Missed About Being Alive.” 

Relief coursed through Percy, soothing away worries he hadn’t known were there. The mention of dating - and how they were not doing it - reminded Percy of the video Nico had shown them. _’#couplegoals!’_ The text had said because someone looked at them and thought they were a couple worthy of emulating. “Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t say anything about dating Nico.” Percy lifted his head off Luke’s chest to squint at his face in the dark. 

“Baby, that kid has a very obvious and very massive crush on you.” Luke made a motion like he was tucking Percy’s short hair behind his ear. His hand lingered on Percy’s neck. “You had a contemplative look on your face all day. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.” 

“Oh,” Percy said dumbly. “You know, I would punch anyone else who called me baby.” 

Luke laughed quietly. He ran his thumb along the tendons in Percy’s neck. “If it really bothers you, I’ll stop.” 

Percy’s face grew even warmer. He laid his head back down, just in case Luke’s night vision was better than his. With his ear pressed to Luke’s chest again, he could feel the steady pounding of Luke’s heart. It was a reassuring sound, something that proved Luke was alive beyond a doubt. “No. It doesn’t bother me when you do it.” 

Luke pressed his lips to Percy’s hair. “Good,” he whispered.  
  
  
  


Anxiety was a fog in Percy’s chest. It swirled around in his lungs like mist at the shoreline. Between the fog in his chest and the thrumming in his bones, Percy couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned like a ship in the storm, rising and falling in and out of consciousness but never submerging completely into sleep. 

The same thought swam around in his mind over and over: what if she finds me? At the time, Percy hadn’t remembered that it wasn’t just his birthday; it was their one-year anniversary. Annabeth made him take her out on the eighteenth of every month for a fancy anniversary dinner. She would have wanted something incredible and expensive for their one year. But Percy left. And he took Luke with him. 

Percy had heard the stories of how Annabeth handled his disappearance when Hera kidnapped him. How she screamed and stomped her feet and threw a temper tantrum like a toddler. How she cursed Hera and spent all of her time obsessively hunting him down. He’d gotten an earful of it from the Athena cabin, about how she’d kept them up working late into the night trying to figure out where he was. He’d heard about how she was more irritable and how she waved weapons around and started fights over nothing. 

Percy remembered when she found him; how she’d thrown him over her shoulder, knelt on his chest, and choked him with her forearm to his throat. How Annabeth threatened to hurt him if he ever left her again. At the time, Percy had laughed. Because what else was he supposed to do? The entire Roman army was watching them with their weapons pointed at Annabeth. If Percy showed his distress, they would have killed her without hesitation. 

Percy’s anxiety drove him out of bed and to the window, parting the curtain just enough to look out over the parking lot. There was the Impala. The woman from the front desk was sitting at the patio and smoking a cigarette. Cars drove by on the freeway but all was still in the parking lot. Percy squinted up at the sky, automatically finding Zoe’s constellation. He was really searching for a black body among the backdrop of the sky. There was no movement of pegasi in the sky. Percy made sure that the window was locked. 

He moved to the door that led into the hallway. The deadbolt was engaged, the door was locked. Percy pressed his ear to the wood and strained his ears. Did he hear anything? The television from another room. No footsteps. He breathed in deep through his nose, scenting for demigods and mountain laurel. Just a generic hotel hallway smell. Percy double checked the lock and deadbolt. 

He resisted the urge to go to the window again and instead paced at the foot of the beds. From the corner of his eye, he watched Luke sleep. 

Luke slept on his stomach, one leg stretched out and the other drawn up. He wore the lavender striped sweater. The sweater was twisted up around his chest, leaving the small of his back exposed. He hugged one of the pillows. 

Percy watched the rise and fall of Luke’s back. If Luke died again, then Percy would be alone. He didn’t realize he’d stopped walking until he was leaning forward toward Luke. Percy shook himself and went to his own bed. Luke would probably welcome him into his bed, but Percy wasn’t optimistic about how much sleep he would get. His eyes hurt. Closing them only barely helped. Percy laid still and tried to clear his mind. 

It didn’t get better. As the days passed, Percy’s anxiety bloomed into paranoia. He didn’t sleep when they went to hotels, couldn’t manage to fall asleep when they were stationary. On good days, he slept in the back seat of the Impala, cuddling Frank the panda. On bad days, he slept in the front seat, his feet pressed against Luke’s thigh because he was terrified that he would wake up and Luke would be gone. 

“I slept all day,” Percy said one day. “So I can drive through the night if you don’t mind sleeping in the car.” His foot bounced with nervousness. 

Luke appraised Percy, studying him for a few long moments. Then he nodded and climbed into the back seat without a word. 

Percy drove through the night without stopping. His eyes kept straying to the rearview mirror. Were they being followed? He drove in utter silence, too anxious about missing the rush of wings because of the radio. As he drove past tourist attractions and scenic views without stopping, Percy’s heart ached. Luke would love to stop. Percy just wanted to get as much distance between him and the demigod camps as possible.  
  
  
  


They were at Applebee’s because Luke wanted a steak and vegetables. Luke had requested two kids menus and crayons. Between the two of them, they got all four crayon colors. They sat fairly close to the emergency exit. 

They ordered and the waitress left the table. 

Luke was coloring with the blue crayon, making clouds in the background. He switched to orange, placing the blue crayon in the center of the table, within Percy’s reach if he wanted them. With the orange he made the sun poking through the clouds and sunbeams coming down. 

Percy’s heart pounded like it did when he was running. He wasn’t running. He watched Luke’s crayon move across the paper. Percy’s hand jerked toward the red crayon. What he did couldn’t be called drawing unless you were an abstract artist. He scribbled hard across the paper, making a mess of waxy red lines. Percy clenched the crayon so hard that his hand hurt. 

Luke was drawing two figures in green, bathed in golden (orange) light. His drawing was so neat. He even managed to shade. 

_If Annabeth catches you,_ his mind whispered, _you’ll never see the sun again._

The resulting anxiety spike was so bad that he tasted bile in the back of his throat. Abruptly, Percy dropped the crayon and stood. “Bathroom,” he managed to choke out. Then he speed walked to the bathroom. Percy went into a stall, dropped to his knees, and threw up in the toilet. 

_If Nico found you then Annabeth can too._

Percy trembled as he vomited again. His spine ached with tension. Every time he thought he was done, his mind would conjure something up and Percy's stomach revolted. Soon, all that was left was stomach acid, yellow and acidic. Percy shivered. He tore some toilet paper from the roll and used it to wipe his mouth. He used more to wipe the sweat off his face. After disposing of them in the toilet, Percy flushed it all away. 

Slowly, Percy rose to his feet. His knees felt like jello. He leaned against the wall, waiting to see if his stomach would settle. The pounding of his heart had only gotten stronger. It was alarming in a distant sort of way, like maybe he should get that checked out. But not right now. He didn’t have time and a doctor's visit would require an ID. Which Annabeth could use to track him. 

Percy’s stomach clenched but nothing came up. He staggered to the sink, washed his hands and rinsed out his mouth. The water helped only marginally. His mouth still tasted vile. Maybe there was a mint he could steal from the front desk. Percy washed his face and ran a hand through his hair. 

He looked at himself in the mirror. If his anxiety stayed this strong, he would never get his black hair back. Percy would be permanently gray at age seventeen. He took a few more minutes to put himself back together. 

Then he left the bathroom. Percy took the long way around to their table so that he could get that mint. The flavor was almost too strong - if he mentioned it to Luke, Luke would say something about how Percy had called him a white boy for not being able to handle spice - but it tasted better than vomit. He sat down at their table. The scribbles were still there but now it seemed insanely childish. Percy flipped the paper over so that he wouldn’t have to look at it. 

Luke stared at Percy for a moment when he returned, but went back to his drawing without comment. He slid his leg over to Percy’s side of the table, silent reassurance. 

When their food came, Percy only picked at his. He got a to-go box to eat it later. 

Luke said nothing.  
  
  
  


They ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Idaho. It was never a big holiday for either of them and it passed without any fanfare. 

Percy had started to get kids meals. He couldn’t eat much. His anxiety staved off the hunger and when he did give in, Percy just threw up later. Over the last few weeks, Percy had learned that there were good and bad places to throw up. Doing it in the privacy of his hotel room was a lot nicer than the public Target bathroom because of all the occupants. Gas station bathrooms were the worst; they always smelled bad and Percy felt like germs were army marching up his clothes when he knelt in front of the toilet. 

Luke kept asking what was wrong. Which was the downside of throwing up in the hotel bathroom; Luke could hear him. He made Percy take anti-nausea medications and a host of vitamins. They didn’t work. He even broke out the ambrosia but it wasn’t a wound and so it couldn't be fixed. 

“Are you sick?” Luke asked for the dozenth time. He sat on the edge of the bed, rubbed comforting circles along Percy’s back. 

Percy shook his head. He was sucking on a mint. They’d bought a bag. His back hurt, spine acting like it had been horrifically abused by all the vomiting. 

“Are you cursed?” Luke asked. His hand was warm. 

Percy shook his head again. They hadn’t had any encounters with anyone who could curse him. He closed his eyes. 

Luke slid off the edge of the bed so that they were face to face. “Please tell me what’s wrong, baby. I can’t fix it if I don’t know.” 

Here was the truth; Percy was overreacting and he knew it. There was no evidence that Annabeth would find them. Nico had gotten lucky. Nico had sworn on the River Styx that he wouldn’t tell anyone. So Annabeth wouldn’t find them. And if she couldn’t find them, then she couldn’t imprison Percy or kill Luke. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Luke asked. There was a sharper edge of concern in his voice. 

Percy shook his head vigorously. 

Luke was silent for a few moments. When he spoke again, it was with great hesitance. “Are you...homesick? Do you want to go back?” 

Percy shivered in horror at the thought. He moved the mint to his cheek, swallowed, then said, “I’m scared.” 

“Of what?” 

Percy squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “Of being found.” Tears rolled hot down his face. He felt so stupid. It was such a dumb thing to worry about. He’d faced literal gods without this much anxiety. He’d gone through Tartarus - actually that was a bad comparison because Percy did not do well in Tartarus. In fact, Tartarus has been really, really bad for him. 

Luke rested his hand on Percy’s neck and rubbed the short hairs at the back of his neck. “Nico finding us really bothered you, didn’t it?” 

Percy nodded. 

“I get it.” Luke‘s eyes glazed slightly, attention turned inward. Then he blinked and said, “We haven’t really talked about how you want to handle it if we are found.” 

“I’m not going back,” Percy said firmly. 

Luke nodded. He sat back against the other bed. “I know you don’t want to go back. I also know that your fatal flaw is personal loyalty.” 

Percy opened his eyes. “And?” 

“If it comes to it, will you fight?” Luke asked, gazing steadily at Percy. There wasn’t a hint of emotion on his face. 

Percy stared back. He knew what Luke was asking. How much did he want his freedom? “Loyalties can shift, Luke.” 

“Percy, I need to know if you can fight them.” 

“I can.” 

Luke studied him. Then he slowly nodded. 

“I would rather run than fight,” Percy admitted. This time it was he who studied Luke’s reaction. 

Luke nodded again. “I’d rather run too.” 

Percy felt some tension evaporate. He sucked on his mint and stared at the bedspread next to Luke’s head. His eyelids were heavy. He had the sudden impulse to get up and check that the window was locked. When Luke was awake, Percy tried to curb his paranoia. Sometimes it worked and he was able to double check the locks only once before Luke fell asleep. He pushed himself up and went to the window. Locked. He padded over to the door, uncomfortably aware of Luke’s eyes on him the whole time. Also locked. Percy peered through the peephole. No one was out in the hallway. 

When he turned around, Luke was behind him. He’d moved without a sound. Luke cupped Percy’s cheek, looking into his eyes. There was worry in his expression. “Have I ever showed you how I tie bows?” 

Percy blinked. “What?” 

Luke drew Percy back to the bed and sat him down. He dug through his backpack and produced two lengths of silk ribbon. Luke sat cross-legged on the bed and handed Percy a ribbon. It was green. He talked Percy through tying the bow, then showed him how to do it. 

Percy stared, bewildered. Did Luke go crazy? Did Percy break him? He watched Luke’s hands make the proper folds, turning the ribbon into a bow. Slowly he did the same, copying Luke’s movements much slower and clumsier. “Why am I doing this?” 

“It’s soothing,” Luke said. He wore Percy’s hoodie. The strings of which were still tied into bows. “They usually have you do knots but I like how bows look, so I learned to tie bows.” 

“They?” Percy echoed. He dropped his gaze back down to his clumsy green bow. It wasn’t anywhere near as pretty and perfect as Luke’s bow...but it wasn’t bad for his first try. He untied it and started again. 

“My therapists.” 

“Therapists?” 

“It can help to have more than one person working on a problem. I had a lot of issues to work on,” Luke explained. He paused to watch Percy’s hands. “I still do...but now I’m alive again. So. I’ve kind of let my therapy sessions fall to the wayside.” 

Percy focused on tying the ribbon into a bow. He did it over and over again. Tying bows didn’t make his anxiety vanish but it gave him something else to focus on. A comfortable silence fell between them. Percy focused on the silk between his fingers. He focused on getting it right. When would he ever need to tie a bow? Percy had no idea. For therapy, apparently. When Percy no longer felt like his heart was a bird in his chest, he said, “She’s crazy obsessed.” 

Luke glanced up at him. “I know.” 

“She said she won’t _ever_ let me go.” 

Luke made a low growling noise in his throat. “How you live your life isn’t up to her.” 

Luke’s words now seemed as radical as his words had seemed when Percy was twelve and Luke deflected from the gods. Percy flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He twined the ribbon around his fingers, thinking. “I should have asked Nico to summon me a therapist.” 

Luke hummed thoughtfully. “It’s not like we can’t call him.” When Percy said nothing, Luke added, “Or write him a letter, I guess. Since I don’t think the rainbow goddess knows where we are.” 

Percy thought about that. Then he laughed. It felt weird to laugh again. “I bet our calls are blocked. How much money do you think they’ve spent trying to call us?” 

Luke offered Percy a brilliant smile. “She’s probably richer than Nico’s dad by now.” 

Percy snorted. “Gods, do you think?” He could imagine Iris opening up a bunch of her weird hippie shops. 

Luke reached over to tie his ribbon around Percy’s wrist. “I think we need a song. Haven’t had one in a while.” 

“You cannot heal me through the power of your voice...as nice as it is,” Percy said. 

“I can try. And anyway it’s stuck in my head.” Luke grinned. 

Percy tried to smile back, barely a twitch of his lips. “Lay it on me, then.” 

“His eyes are cold and restless / and his wounds have almost healed / and she’d give half of Texas / just to change the way he feels / cause she knows his love’s in Tulsa / and she knows he’s gonna go / but it ain’t no woman flesh and blood / it’s that damned old rodeo,” Luke sang. It really had been weeks since Luke last sang. His voice was low; thick and sweet like honey. 

Percy laced the ribbon through his fingers, a different kind of nervous energy building within him. 

Luke stretched out on his stomach parallel to Percy. “She does her best to hold him / when his love comes to call / but his need for it controls him / and her backs against the wall / and it’s ‘so long girl, I’ll see you” / when it’s time for him to go.” He leaned closer to Percy, dropping his voice to an even lower pitch. “You know the woman wants her cowboy / like he wants his rodeo.” 

Percy’s heart skipped a beat. He kept his eyes on Luke’s face. He’s heard the song before, which was how he knew that Luke was skipping the chorus. This was yet another situationally appropriate song...if Luke was the rodeo that the cowboy (Percy) was chasing after. 

Luke didn’t finish the song. He just gazed into Percy’s eyes. “Can I sleep with you tonight?” Luke whispered. 

“I don’t know how much sleep you’ll actually get,” Percy whispered back. He immediately realized what that sounded like and his face warmed. 

“That’s okay,” Luke replied. “I don’t mind losing a little sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fish in the desert scene was taken from the short film _Fish Night_ , found in Netflix's _Love, Death, & Robots_. It was too good a concept not to use.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy has a wild idea to make sure Annabeth can't find them using their names and Luke agrees to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry but Luke does not sing in this chapter.
> 
> I realized about the time I was writing chapter eight that the chapters are so long that conflicts never last for more than two chapters max. I hope you guys don't mind too much.

### “You don’t need scores of suitors. You only need one...if he’s the right one.” ― Louisa May Alcott | Little Women 

Sharing a bed one night led them to sharing a bed well into December. It didn’t matter if Percy was having good days or bad ones; they slept together. Which turned out to be good for Percy because with Luke right next to him, within easy reach, he felt safe. A little less hunted and a little more secure. 

They were both sleeping more because Percy kept them awake with his restlessness and Luke was now the sole driver after Percy hit the gas while in reverse and almost hit a dog. Luke didn’t complain about doing all the driving. 

Another hotel room, this time in Washington State. They had the heater on because it was snowing outside. No more roughing it for them: when Percy suggested it, Luke had given him such a disgusted look that it reminded him of the first time Luke met Tyson face to face. “Trust me, Percy, sleeping outside in the cold and the snow sucks. You don’t want to try it.” 

Percy lay curled on his side, facing Luke. He ran his fingers along the length of green ribbon Luke had given him. He could now tie a bow without looking and he didn’t really know how he felt about that. Percy thought about the problem of being found. Every day that passed was one day closer to Annabeth fixing her shield and finding them. 

Annabeth’s shield was broken and that was the only reason she hadn’t found them yet. Maybe Hermes was helping, maybe he wasn’t, maybe he was only hiding them from the monsters and the other gods. Nico had found them without using magic. 

Percy didn’t think Nico would come back. 

But Annabeth? She was a problem. Once her shield was fixed all she had to do was say their names and it would show her where they were. There had to be a way to hide from her! And from everyone else using their names to look for them. Percy didn’t know the exact details but he knew other people could find them via their names too. 

They should change their names. Could you just change a name for no reason? Didn’t it have to be for marriage or when you were put into the witness protection program? Well Percy sure as heck didn’t want to deal with the authorities. But marriage? Who would they marry? 

The idea of bringing someone into the group, a third wheel, didn’t really appeal. It would have to be someone in the know. And who knew them. And wasn’t named Annabeth or Thalia. 

For the first time in weeks, Percy thought about the video Nico had shown them. 

Couple goals… 

Oh. 

_Oh._

Percy propped himself up just so he could try and see Luke’s face. 

Luke was asleep on his back, face neutral. _Not_ drooling because Percy seemed to be the only demigod who drooled. 

“Luke,” Percy whispered. 

A soft groan from Luke. 

That was probably as close to awake as he’d get. Percy continued, “Let’s get married.” 

Luke rolled toward him. His arms came up to wrap around Percy’s waist and settle at the small of his back. “You want something fancy or a Vegas wedding?” His eyes were still closed. 

“Vegas,” Percy said. It wasn’t like they could invite their friends and family since that’s who they were running away from. 

“Okay,” Luke agreed. He yawned. “Gotta...buy some rings.” He sighed and fell deeper into sleep. 

Percy smiled and kissed Luke’s cheek. He tucked his head back under Luke’s chin and finally fell asleep.  
  
  
  
They had been on the road for an hour before Luke glanced at Percy and asked, “Was I hallucinating this morning when you said you wanted to get married?” 

Percy’s heart skipped a beat. In the light of day it still seemed like a good idea...but he was doubting that Luke would agree to it now that he was fully awake. “Nope. That happened.” 

Luke faced the road again. “Ah. Okay.” 

He was silent long enough that Percy squirmed. Now Percy was sure that he had overstepped somehow. After all, how could he ask Luke to marry him when Percy couldn’t even guarantee that they would ever consummate their marriage? Not to mention, Percy was currently a wreck. He’d lost twenty-five pounds. “Do you still want to?” 

“Why are we getting married?” 

Percy explained the rationale. He ran his nails up and down the seat belt strap while he spoke. Explaining it made it seem like Percy wanted to do it for convenience. It wasn’t like he didn’t like Luke. 

Luke was quiet for a few miles. He switched to the left lane, slowed down, and then flipped an illegal U-y so that they were driving south. 

Percy raised an eyebrow. 

“You wanna go to Vegas, right?” Luke wasn’t smiling. He didn’t look happy at all, actually. And he wasn’t singing. 

“Yeah,” Percy said softly. He drew his legs up to his chest and hugged them. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he was stupid to think that Luke would actually want to marry him. They weren’t even dating. Percy couldn’t even satisfy Luke. And he was only seventeen. Was this a mistake? These thoughts dogged Percy for the entire drive from Washington to Nevada. By the time they got there, Percy was positive that he’d ruined everything.  
  
  
  
Even after all these years, Percy didn’t like Las Vegas, Nevada. The place looked cheap in the light of day and there were too many casinos. The regular kind of casino, not the kind that trapped you forever...but Percy wasn’t sure there was much of a difference. Sally always said that Gabe’s gambling was ‘an addiction he couldn’t help.’ Being here made him think of Gabe and of Nico. 

Percy and Luke weren’t talking. They hadn’t spoken once since Luke turned around on the freeway. The radio played but it didn’t invoke feelings of comradery or playfulness because Luke wasn’t singing and they weren’t fighting over what to listen to. It was white noise. Percy couldn’t even tell what station was playing if someone had asked. 

As always, Luke seemed to know exactly where to go to get what he wanted. They parked in front of a jewelry store. Luke finally turned to Percy. “Not that I mind dropping a lot of money on this,” The money belonged to Hermes so Luke was positively gleeful about making large purchases. “but before I do, are you sure you want to get married to me?” 

Percy chewed on that for a moment, wondering why it felt wrong for Luke to have asked. “I...I like you,” he said hesitantly. “Twelve-year-old me would be happy.” 

Luke sighed. The scars on Luke’s face suddenly made him look old and battleworn. “Right. The twelve-year-old that knew me for a month and a half before I tried to kill him. How about the seventeen-year-old? How’s he feel about this?” There was an edge to Luke’s voice. 

Percy cocked his head, confused. He had that cold panicky feeling he got with Annabeth, when she expected something of him but wanted him to guess. It was almost identical to the panicky feeling when he remembered they were being hunted. “I like you.” 

“Do you?” 

Percy was even more confused now. “Yeah. I do.” He frowned. “Why are you asking like that?” Like _that_ … Like Luke didn’t believe him. As far as Percy knew, they were doing pretty good. They had a good thing going. Luke was easy going and fun to be around. Not to mention, he put up with Percy’s near-crippling anxiety. 

Luke drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, fast and uneasily. He looked out the windshield instead of at Percy. “I...feel like you don’t trust me. And that this is just a way for you to hide from everyone we know.” 

It sounded stupid that Luke could think Percy didn’t trust him. They slept in the same room every night, even the same bed. He didn’t think Luke was poisoning his food and drink even though he knew Luke could and had plenty of opportunities to. Percy shared deeply intimate parts of himself and his life with Luke. What the fuck was any of that if it wasn’t trusting Luke? 

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “There are other people you can marry, you know. Other demigods. Or mortals.” 

Percy’s stomach twisted into knots. His chest felt tight. He couldn’t look directly at Luke. “I just thought that if we’re going to be together for…for a while then…” Percy’s face warmed. “If it means that we get to stay together and stay hidden longer then it feels like a good idea.” 

“Percy,” Luke said. “You know I’m a war criminal, right?” 

“Duh.” 

“You’ve already made an enemy out of thunder cock,” Luke said with a straight face. “We really don’t want to make an enemy of his _wife._ ” 

“We’re already enemies,” he said darkly, voice low and angry. “She stole my memories and kidnapped me and dropped me at the fucking Wolf House in California.” Percy gripped his calves tightly, the memory pissing him off. Anger felt better than fear. “The only reason I lived through that is because I still had Achilles’ curse. Otherwise, I’d have died on my way to the Roman camp. That _cunt._ ” 

Luke had a small, amused smile on his face. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Right. So I guess that bridge is already burned.” 

Percy nodded. “What does this have to do with us getting married?” 

“She’s the goddess of _marriage_ , Percy.” Luke’s smile vanished. “She can’t make the Olympians uphold their vows but she’ll go batshit on demigods. Especially two demigods that she doesn’t like.” 

For a moment, Percy wondered what his marriage to Annabeth would have been like. Hera hated both of them. Would they constantly fight? They did that already, not really big enough for a goddess. Would she turn one or both of them into animals? Would she do to him what she’d done to Heracles and make Percy kill his wife and their kids? The color drained from Percy’s face. Would Hera even let them have kids? Would Percy be able to get Annabeth pregnant and if he could, would she be able to carry to term? The idea of how Hera could have tortured him and Annabeth was enough to make Percy want to throw up. Again. No, they weren’t together anymore, but now that seemed like more a blessing than before. 

Percy pushed those thoughts from his mind. Annabeth wasn’t important that way and none of that was going to happen...even if Percy and Luke _didn’t_ get married. He uncurled from the seat and scooted closer to Luke. “I was thinking over the drive and there’s no one else I would be ‘retiring’ with.” Percy made air quotes. “I couldn’t imagine being with anyone other than you. If getting married makes us divinely bound...I mean, we kind already are. ” 

“Do you trust me?” Luke asked again. 

Percy rested his hand on Luke’s thigh. “Yeah. I do. Now let’s go inside and buy something before they call the cops on us.” 

Luke laughed and rolled his eyes. He turned the engine off. Then he took Percy’s hand in his and kissed his knuckles. “Sounds like a plan.” 

They went inside, hand in hand, just in case anyone had any questions about what they were doing there. There were questions of course. A dark woman with teal hair greeted them. “I’m Cleotha. What can I help you find today?” She was wearing a pinstripe suit that was nicer than anything Percy owned and fiercely reminded him of how much he liked women. Cleotha looked like a CEO. 

“We’re looking for wedding rings,” Luke said. His glamour had been smoothly applied. Whenever Luke wore it, Percy was reminded of the fourteen-year-old in the memory of May’s house. Not that Luke looked fourteen, but it was the only age Percy had ever seen him without the scar. 

If the idea of a same-sex couple bothered Cleotha, she gave no indication of it. However, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of the staff lounging around the store. “Right this way,” Cleotha said. “What’s your budget?” 

“We don’t have one,” Luke replied. 

The store itself was surprisingly dark, with dim lighting in the ceiling. Only the display cases were brightly lit, trying and succeeding in drawing the eye to the glittering jewelry within. 

Cleotha hovered a polite distance away, available to answer questions but not crowding them. 

Luke pressed up against Percy’s back, looking over his shoulder into the display case. It was difficult to tell if this was because the glamour was wearing him out, he was feeling particularly affectionate, or he wanted to watch the other staff squirm. “You wanna get matching rings?” 

Percy hummed. “We _have_ matching rings,” he replied. 

“Do we?” 

“I still have the daisy ring you made me.” Percy felt Luke’s smile against the back of his neck. He smiled too, suddenly glad that he’d brought it along with him. Then he focused his attention on the rings below them. If they were going to get matching rings then they’d have to opt for something more gender neutral. “Do you still have yours?” 

Luke nodded. There was movement then he was pulling out his wallet. He opened one of the flaps and pulled out the small, flat daisy ring so that Percy could see it. He was very careful with it and put it back almost as quickly as he got it out. “I don’t want it to break,” he explained quietly. 

Percy pressed more snugly against Luke’s chest. He said, “Do you see anything you like?” 

This earned him another smile. “Sure do.” Luke lightly squeezed Percy’s middle. 

Percy laughed, keeping his voice low. Aside from the staff, they were the only ones in the jewelry store. “I meant the rings, Luke.” 

Luke purred. “Well in that case…” He pointed to a set of thin braided rings displayed on a mannequin’s hand. They came in white, yellow, and rose gold and were quite simple. Just a thin braid of metal, with a single round gem set in the center. They weren’t actually very expensive (so Luke wouldn’t be spending a ton of Hermes’ money) but neither of them were actually concerned by the price tag. “It comes in two tone too.” 

They looked perfect and Percy told Luke so. From there it was a matter of getting the sizing correct and paying for them. Both of these were simple tasks that Luke took care of. 

Percy stood off to the side, trying to remember what this jeweler’s slogan was. All he could think was _Shane Co, where the pets go_...which didn’t seem right. 

“We can pick up our rings tomorrow.” Luke’s voice snapped Percy out of his thoughts. 

Percy didn’t like the idea of staying in Las Vegas. “Okay.”  
  
  
  
Their next stop was to the Marriage Bureau to pick up a marriage license so that it would be legally binding. They could have faked it but they both decided that while mortal legal standards didn’t matter much to the Olympians, it would hold up better than something obviously faked. Just in case it made any difference if they were found by someone more malicious than Nico. 

The building to pick up the marriage license was made of brick and glass. There were steps going up to it and a security guard at the door. Inside, it smelled like floor cleaner and paper. They had to walk through a metal detector, which Luke magicked so that it didn’t go off. His tri-dagger was still on him, as it always was. 

Percy slipped his hand into Luke’s as they walked through the cold hallways crowded with people who ignored them. Everybody here was lost in their own worlds. 

Luke smiled at him, then focused on navigating them to the correct floor and the correct line to wait in. 

There were a ton of people looking to get married in a hurry. Some were in their wedding outfits. All of them were straight, which wasn’t something that Percy had considered when asking Luke to marry him. Was it even legal for them to get married? “Hey, Luke?” Percy said lowly. 

“Hmm?” 

“ _Can_ we get married? I mean, legally.” 

Luke shook his head. “Um, no.” 

Percy stared at him. 

Luke continued, “You’re only seventeen. You need parental consent to get married. And same-sex marriage is illegal.” 

Percy’s heart raced. He felt like there were ants crawling up his arms. His age wasn’t something that he’d even considered but now he realized that Luke was right. He was underage. Technically too young to get married without permission. “Then how can we get married?” he hissed, fear lending an edge to his voice. 

Luke brought Percy’s knuckles to his lips and kissed them. There wasn’t a shred of worry in his expression. He really didn’t think that this was a problem. “The same way I’ve gotten you into all the adult functions. I’m going to manipulate the Mist.” 

That might work. The manipulated drivers license that Percy carried around had passed every test so far. They hadn’t yet had a chance to check it with the state or federal governments though. “But we’re both men.” 

Luke shrugged. “I can be the wife if you want.” 

Percy couldn’t tell if Luke was joking. He knew that he looked panicked, could feel how wide his eyes were and the coldness of his hands. The more he thought about it, the less that Percy thought Luke was joking about his offer. Luke was a man and he used male pronouns and Percy didn’t doubt any of that. He also wore women’s clothes. That didn’t make him less of a man. Crossdressing was just something that Luke enjoyed and made him feel more comfortable. It didn’t hurt anyone. Sure, it would probably get him beat up at school but they were in the adult world. Which could also be unforgiving. Though Percy would like to see anybody try to be bigotted toward Luke and walk away from that in one piece. 

Luke watched Percy’s face with amusement. “You’re thinking too hard, baby.” He turned Percy’s wrist over and traced the moonlace tattoo there. “All I mean is that one of us is going to have to pretend to be a woman and since I’m the one wearing women’s underwear, it should probably be me.” 

Percy held onto his worry for a moment more before letting it go. He trusted Luke to figure things out. “You’re right. I am overthinking.” 

Still, Percy was glad when they got their license without a hitch. He couldn’t tell if Luke had a glamour on making him look more feminine but either way, no one questioned their right to marry. Within an hour, they had within their possession, the paper that held their future. The sun had shifted while they were inside the building, casting long shadows stretching toward the east. 

As they walked back to the car, Luke asked, “Are you okay?” 

“I hate this city. The hotels make me nervous,” Percy admitted. He snagged the car keys from Luke’s belt loop and slid into the driver's seat. “On my first quest, I was trapped in one for what I thought was a few hours but turned out to be a whole week.” 

“Oh shit,” Luke said. “We could try sleeping in the car but I don’t know if I could keep a glamour up that long.” After all the Mist manipulation to get their marriage license, Luke was looking a little pale. 

Percy nodded slowly. He’d expected that. If Luke used that much energy then he would be out for the rest of the day. “Well, this is Vegas. Is there anything to do here besides gamble?” 

Luke hummed thoughtfully. “We could see a show.” 

“Okay,” Percy agreed. 

Luke grinned. “So, baby, what are you in the mood for?”  
  
  
  
Luke took Percy to a comedy show for dinner and laughter. At the end of it, Percy’s face hurt from laughing so much and he felt giddy like the bubbles in a bottle of champagne. It was like he’d swung all the way to the other end of the emotional spectrum. He held Luke’s arm and buried his face against Luke’s shoulder. “It’s cold. My nose is cold.” 

Luke walked with him, arm in arm. In the dark of the early morning, his glamour was gone and his scars stretched with his smile. He pressed his lips to Percy’s hair, kissing the gray locks over and over. “It’s December, Percy.” 

Neither of them were walking straight; no pun intended. Percy was almost delirious with exhaustion, coupled with the highs and lows of the day. He was sure that Luke felt the same way. They must have looked like a pair of drunks walking down the street to their car. At two in the morning, in the city of sin, it was not a sight out of place. The men roaming the streets for fights and trouble wisely left them alone. 

Percy unlocked the car and pulled Luke into the back seat with him. He laughed, unbelievably giddy with the reality of their situation and utter exhaustion. They were going to get married tomorrow. Percy would no longer be Percy Jackson and Luke would no longer be Luke Castellan. A new life together, new identities, just the two of them. No one would find them. _Annabeth_ wouldn’t find them. 

Luke settled on top of Percy, heavy and comforting. Then he pulled their blankets over them to stave off the cold. They spent so much time together that Luke smelled like the ocean and hot candle wax. He didn’t try to kiss Percy, just rubbed his cheek against Percy’s cheek. 

“You smell like me,” Percy said happily. 

“Well you smell like me,” Luke replied, voice low and no less happy. 

“Do I?” 

“You do.” 

Percy cupped Luke’s face and ran his thumb over the scars. He wanted badly to kiss Luke, but the fear of Luke taking it too far stayed the impulse. “Can I keep you?” 

Luke touched his forehead to Percy’s. “Only if I can keep you.” His hand cradled Percy’s head, thumb rubbing against the skin behind Percy’s ear. 

Percy nodded. He swallowed down his nervousness. “I think it’s bedtime. We’ve been up for...actually I don’t know how many hours but it feels like a lot.” 

Luke kissed Percy’s nose. “That’s the sexiest thing anyone has ever said to me.” He made to get up but paused. “Percy, your stupidly huge panda is in my spot.” 

“Well you can either sleep with Frank or you can sleep with me,” Percy replied with wide-eyed innocence. Frank was what he’d named the giant stuffed panda, after Frank Zhang, because the demigod Frank was tall and fat and cuddly and gave warm hugs and was a shapeshifter. Percy missed him - he missed most of Camp Jupiter - and having a giant stuffed animal was a poor substitution but it was better than nothing. 

Luke pulled the panda into the back seat and settled it on the floor. Frank the panda took up the entire space. Luke put a pillow on one end and flopped down with a huff. He was a couple inches lower than the seat. 

Percy smiled as he flipped one of the blankets onto Luke. He reached out and held Luke’s hand.  
  
  
  
The afternoon they were to be married was lovely as could be hoped for. It was a cloudless day but the wind kept it from being too hot. Percy woke after Luke, woke to find that Luke was watching him sleep. 

“Hi,” Luke whispered. His expression was something that Percy couldn’t place. He ran his thumb over the back of Percy’s hand. 

“Hi,” Percy whispered back. His chest felt full to burst. “Have you been awake long?” 

Luke shook his head. “Are you hungry?” 

Percy nodded. “I want McDonalds,” he said. When he was younger, the idea of going out for fast food was literally a luxury. It meant a special occasion. Now he and Luke ate out almost exclusively, sitting across from each other in various restaurants and fast food joints, eating food that other people cooked. It was nice. And when they got tired of that or when they were in a rural area, they cooked their own food. Usually over a fire. 

“Sounds good.” Luke said nothing when Percy took the keys from him. 

Percy drove them to the nearest McDonalds, which he _didn’t_ need directions to because McDonalds were notoriously easy to find. He found a spot near the entrance and they took their backpacks into the bathroom to change clothes. 

“I think I remember you saying that you don’t want anything fancy,” Luke began, “But do you want...something nicer to wear than what we have?” 

Percy was still in the stall, debating which of his four t-shirts that he should wear. They should probably get more clothes sometime. As it was, Percy was running on two pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, and a jacket that quite frankly had a lot of holes in it. “I think that’s a good idea,” Percy said as he put on a purple shirt that said _Daddy Issues_ in baseball font. 

Luke wore Percy’s jeans and the lavender sweater. He ran a brush through his white blond hair and put deodorant on. Somewhere along the way, he’d picked up a narrow tube of eyeliner and was currently lining his eyes in black. It was devastatingly sexy. Luke glanced at Percy and smirked, just a little, as he read the t-shirt. “Appropriate for our wedding day,” he said. 

After returning their packs to the trunk, they went into the restaurant and ordered. Percy got pancakes and orange juice. Luke got two egg mcmuffins and a coffee. They took their food outside and ate at one of the stone tables. It was a beautiful afternoon, the weather in the eighties and a clear sky. 

Percy kept thinking about the weather. Maybe it was because every time Zeus was angry he threw a bitch fit in the sky. He kept expecting the weather to take a sudden turn for the worse. Thunderstorms and...did they get tornadoes in Nevada? Something like that to show that Zeus had found them and was _pissed off._ Then again, the good weather might have just been Hera smiling down on them, which was as terrifying as Zeus’ disapproval. 

The rings wouldn’t be ready until that afternoon so after breakfast, they went to look for a clothing store that sold something they wanted to buy. Luke drove this time because he seemed to always know where to find exactly what he was looking for. Percy wondered if that was a Hermes trait. He took them to a part of town that Percy immediately recognized as being where the rich people lived. Maybe they didn’t spend a lot of money on the rings but by gods they were going to spend a lot on clothes, Percy realized. 

It made sense that there was a rich part of Las Vegas. A part that was more than just gaudy and cheap. The real deal, so to speak, where all that glittered was diamonds. Luke pulled into an underground parking lot that they had to pay fifteen dollars to use. They found a parking spot and went to an elevator. 

“What if we dropped straight into the Underworld?” Percy asked as they went up into the building. He looked at his reflection in the elevator’s golden mirror. He still looked like shit. How long would it take before he started looking good again? 

Luke made a face at Percy. “Then I guess you would have to Houdini us out of there.” 

“I only made it out the first time because of my dad and the second time because of Nico,” Percy confessed. 

“Then I guess we’d both die.” Luke hummed thoughtfully. “Again.” 

The elevator doors opened silently into a massive lobby. Percy was immediately reminded of Grand Central Station, except that there were less people, the few that were there wore nice clothes, and it didn’t smell bad. It smelled like rich people, like expensive things. Percy imagined that this was what new car smell was like but he’d never been in a new car so he wasn’t sure. What he was sure of was that they were massively, massively out of dress code. He was wearing the same cotton t-shirt and blue jeans that he’d had for three months. They weren’t new. They weren’t expensive. Percy was pretty sure that Luke had stolen the t-shirt for him. 

But Percy had walked among gods. He wasn’t going to let the wealthy of Las Vegas intimidate him. He walked beside Luke, letting his fiance lead the way to yet another elevator. He was dying to ask how Luke knew where to go but his shoes squeaked against the floors and it was _loud_ without adding his voice to the mix. Seriously, couldn’t these people invest in a stereo system? Why did it have to sound like a crypt in here? 

Luke led Percy to another elevator and pushed the button for the fifth floor. He didn’t consult any of the directories on the walls. This elevator also had mirrors but they were of the normal silver variety...and edged with matte filigree. It was a relief to be in the elevator with just Luke even if it was silent here too. Even the Olympians had elevator music. The doors opened silently on their floor. 

The entire fifth floor was a store with plush cream colored carpet and dark wood furniture. 

The person attending the store lounged on a couch, playing on their cell phone. They looked to be of Middle Eastern descent and completely genderless. Percy couldn’t decide if they were male or female and nothing about them - not their clothes, or hair, or face, or posture - lent to one or the other. They were fluid, like the sea, and had the same natural beauty. Percy liked them immediately. The attendant looked up and their nostrils flared. They broke into a grin. “Well, well, I haven’t had customers like you two in for a long time.” 

Percy almost missed their scent, it was so subtle. They smelled of old books and freshly cut limes. A child of Athena. His guard went up immediately. This was the first demigod they’ve run into since Nico found them. And they were a child of Athena, which couldn’t be good. Those ones always tended to be crazy. 

“I’m Zein, a child of the wisdom goddess,” they introduced themselves. They didn’t offer to shake hands, though they did rise from the couch and put their phone away. “What can I sell to you, gentlemen?” They wagged a finger at Luke. “And I do mean _sell_ , son of the thief god.” 

To Percy’s surprise, Luke smiled. He pulled out the black Hermes Express card. “That won’t be a problem.” 

Zein grinned back. “So what’s the occasion, boys? A wedding or a funeral? No, wait, let me guess.” Zein appraised them with dark gray eyes. Percy wondered if Athena designed all her children to have gray eyes. It sure did seem that way. Zein snapped their fingers. “You two are getting married. Congratulations!” 

“Thank you,” Luke said. 

Percy blinked. “How did you know?” he asked. 

“I am wise, young one,” Zein replied with a wink. 

“Young one?” Percy repeated, confused. Zein didn’t look out of their early twenties. 

Zein laughed. “It takes a lot of time and stress to make demigods look their age,” they said. They beckoned Percy and Luke deeper into the store. “We specialize in tuxedos and suits for all occasions, of course, but most people come to be outfitted for funerals or weddings.” 

As they followed Zein past mannequins, Percy took deep breaths through his nose. He was sure that Zein had to be mixed with Aphrodite. None of the Athena kids were interested in selling clothing. Or clothing at all, really. Annabeth and her siblings weren’t very fashion forward. But Percy couldn’t pick up the distinct scent of roses in Zein’s scent. Maybe they were like Dimeka or Frank and had gods from multiple cultures in their lineage. 

It seemed that they were the only customers in the store and that there was no other staff. Even the blandest of suits had interesting flourishes like a bit of embroidery or lace or fancy buttons. “They should be white, of course, because it’s traditional even though I doubt either of you are virgins.” Percy didn’t want to know how they knew that. “And matching, up to a point. Complimenting each other is important of course. Then there’s your eyes. If we aren’t careful with the color, your eyes are going to eclipse it. ” This was said with a point to Percy. “And both of you have...unique hair.” Zein pursed their lips. “We also don’t want to wash you out.” Their finger pointed to Luke now. 

Luke and Percy exchanged a look. 

Zein snapped their fingers. “You, whatever your name is, take off that trash you’ve got on and let me see what I’m working with. And don’t bother with your glamour, you don’t need it with me.” 

Percy wondered if he should be angry that their clothes were being referred to as trash...but just looking around the store made him _feel_ like their clothes were trash. “You’re kind of rude.” 

Luke snorted. He was already stripping, leaving his clothes in a heap on the floor. The glamour he’d been wearing vanished, revealing all of his scars. If Luke was concerned about being naked, he didn’t show it at all. 

Zein fixed cold gray eyes on Percy in a look that reminded him of Daedalus and Annabeth. “We get that from our mother,” they said. Then they looked back at Luke, appraising him like he was a doll to play dress up with. “I think gold is a good color for you,” they said finally. Zein made a stay motion then walked away, murmuring and looking at the displayed suits. 

Percy was left with Luke. He hoped no one else would come into the store. As he looked around, he realized that there were no windows at all. Every wall was covered with wooden displays where suits were hung and pocket squares were displayed. Then, Percy spotted something that made his eyes widen. “That’s Charon’s Italian suit.” 

Because there was no one else in the store, Zein heard him. They glanced over from where they were examining white suits. “Is he still calling my suits Italian?” Zein rolled their eyes. “Do I look Italian to you?” 

“Your suits?” Percy echoed. He suddenly felt stupid because the answer was obvious. “You made all of these?” 

“Of course. It’s not _quite_ the same as weaving but why should that matter? Are you limited to seawater?” Zein returned to their racks. 

“No,” Percy said. He should have realized that of course a child of Athena - the weaver - would be able to create beautiful outfits. It seemed that every adult demigod he came across did something for the gods and their ilk. Was there really no escaping their heritage? He remembered what Annabeth had said about being a marine biologist. Percy found the idea laughable. Just because he could hear the thoughts of sea animals in his head, and frequently rescued them, didn’t mean he wanted to do that for the rest of his life. Not to mention, Percy hated aquariums. Was he destined to go into a career involving the ocean just because he was Poseidon’s son? 

Luke had been quiet during the exchange. Now he nudged Percy with his shoulder, giving him a quizzical look. 

Percy just shook his head. “I don’t want to do something related to my dad.” 

“You don’t have to,” Luke said and that was that. 

Zein came back with a rolling rack that was mostly bare. It only had one suit, each piece on its own hanger. “Try this on. Don’t worry about the fit, it’ll change itself to your body.” 

The first thing that Luke took off the hanger was a pair of white silk panties with lace sewn on the outside. Percy looked away while he pulled those up over his thighs and settled them into place. Next came a long-sleeve white lace button up. The lace was patterned in some sort of flower design but Percy couldn’t name the type. In just those two garments, Luke looked stunning. White cotton slacks followed, shifting to adjust to Luke’s body just like Zein said they would. The vest that Luke put on was embroidered and golden, nearly the only pop of color in the whole outfit. 

Gold was always a good color for Luke, much as Percy hated to admit it. Gold reminded Percy of Kronos because that was the color that Luke’s eyes had turned and before he’d banished Kronos, he had an aura of golden light around him. But Percy wouldn’t admit that to Luke. Ever. 

Luke shrugged on the jacket. The golden labels matched the vest’s embroidered pattern. The rest of the jacket was soft white cotton. He buttoned the single golden button on the bottom. 

Zein stepped forward then, helping Luke to tie a gold embroidered bow tie around his neck. “You look sublime,” they said. They produced a small royal blue pocket square and neatly tucked it into Luke’s chest pocket. “There. What do you think?” The question was directed at Percy. 

Percy thought that Luke looked like a million drachmas. He was embarrassed to say so. This was Luke. They were friends. Who were going to be married. Percy wondered when he started thinking of Luke as a friend. 

Both Luke and Zein aimed pleased smiles at him, so they must have seen something on Percy’s face. Zein turned away, taking the rolling rack with them, to go and get Percy’s suit. 

Luke wandered over to a half circle of mirrors, twisting and turning to look at himself. “It fits like a dream,” he said happily. The suit lended an air of confidence to Luke that he just didn’t exude while wearing sweaters and leggings. Not that he looked bad or lost a lot of confidence wearing them - though he did seem more subdued while crossdressing - but there was something different about a man in a suit. Luke looked so different from the man that Percy met at Camp, and even from the man who led Kronos’ army. He was absolutely gorgeous, more stunning than even the gods or Annabeth. 

Maybe Percy had a type. 

Percy was surprised when Zein returned soon. Their gray eyes held amusement and pride. “If you don’t mind stripping naked, I’ve got your suit too. Be fast and we can surprise him.” Zein jerked their chin toward Luke, who was still looking wide-eyed into the mirrors. 

Percy nodded, thrilled with the idea of surprising Luke. He hadn’t wanted anything fancy because they didn’t have family to share it with...but there was nothing wrong with being fancy for themselves. He quickly removed his clothes, leaving them on top of Luke’s pile, and began to dress. Thankfully Zein seemed to know that he didn’t want women’s underwear and provided him with boxer-briefs. The shirt that Percy wore beneath his jacket and vest was just a poet shirt, laced in the front. His suit was identical to Luke’s, except that his vest and accents were a deep blue like the water over the Mariana Trench. The fabric moved and shifted against his skin as it adjusted to fit him properly. It was a strange, ticklish feeling before it settled to be soft and cool. 

Zein helped Percy with his bowtie and tucked a golden pocket square into his chest pocket. The fabric was the same embroidered gold as Luke’s accents. “There. Now even the mortals will be able to tell that you two are clearly a couple.” 

“How did you know?” Percy asked quietly. 

“Your scents are intertwined,” Zein replied. They straightened Percy’s bowtie. “Now go show your love how good you look.” They made shooing motions with their hands. 

Percy smiled gratefully, then joined Luke in front of the mirrors. He watched Luke’s face in the reflection of one of them. 

A look of wonder crossed Luke’s face. His eyes darted up and down the length of Percy’s body. He grinned and then turned to sweep Percy up and spin him around. “Look at you!” 

“Look at us!” Percy laughed back. 

Luke set him down and pressed his forehead to Percy’s. “We look great,” Luke admitted, still smiling. “Let’s see if Zein has a bag to put our other clothes in and I’ll pay them for their lovely suits.” 

Percy’s heart was racing fast when Luke set him back on his feet. He looked into Luke’s bright blue eyes and his heart skipped a beat. “Okay,” Percy agreed. 

They stayed there for a long moment, Luke’s hands on Percy’s waist and Percy’s on Luke’s shoulders. Then they stepped apart. 

Zein was filling out paperwork across the store at the desk by the elevator doors. They looked up at the two demigods. “You two are forgetting something.” 

Percy cocked his head. 

Luke raised an eyebrow. 

Zein pointed their pen down. “Shoes,” they said with a smirk.  
  
  
  
By the time they left Zein’s store - still wearing their suits - it was time to pick up the rings. Percy suspected that the speedy sizing was a direct result of the power money held. Or maybe it just didn’t take a long time to size rings. Percy wasn’t a jeweler. 

Cleotha was working again. She looked surprised by their outfits and then broke into a large smile. “You two look great!” she exclaimed. 

“Thank you,” Percy said. 

Actually picking up the rings was a quick process. Luke showed her their receipt and Cleotha went to the back to get the proper order. She was back in a few minutes with two little velvet boxes. “Take a look, see if they fit properly.” 

Percy and Luke tried on the rings. They fit perfectly. Percy stared down at the ring that he would be wearing for the rest of his life. Then he took it off and carefully placed it back into the box. That was all there was to picking up the rings. 

“Good luck, boys,” Cleotha said as they left. 

Percy held both of the boxes, staring at them and feeling both overwhelmed and giddy. “Should we wear them now or do you want to wait?” 

“Let’s wait,” Luke decided. “We’ll be wearing them soon enough.” With that, it was time to find a church to be married in. There were plenty to choose from. 

The building they stopped outside of looked like a church. It was small and white, with a blue roof and a stone tower. Maybe it would have been cute but there was a gaudy sign declaring that it was called the _Graceland Wedding Chapel._ The name sounded vaguely familiar, and so did the inside. Percy wondered if he’s seen it on TV before. 

Luke was confident as he got them checked in. Apparently they had an appointment. When he saw Percy’s confusion, Luke explained, “I found a payphone on the drive back down here and made reservations.” 

That made sense. They’d made some stops between one state and the next. However, Percy hadn’t realized that Luke managed to track down a payphone, let alone used it. He’d spent the whole drive lost in his own head. “How did you know the number?” 

Luke shrugged. “I just knew it.” 

It must have been a Hermes power. Hermes kids seemed to have very subtle powers that weren’t immediately obvious. It made Percy wonder about the other demigods who didn’t seem to have powers but then he got distracted because they were being ushered into a room. 

The room they were to be married in was extremely yellow. Everything from the lights, to the carpet, to the flowers, to the textured paint on the walls was very, very yellow. Even the white benches were more creamy than pure white. The good news was that it was a golden yellow, rather than a neon yellow; which was the only thing saving the place. In fact, the only thing that _wasn’t_ yellow was the man dressed in a gaudy black rhinestone suit. 

“Is that Elvis?” Percy asked, cocking his head at the man waiting at the altar to marry them. 

Luke pursed his lips. “Probably not the original.” 

They took their place at the altar. The last time Percy had been at an altar, he’d been spilling his blood and waking the goddess of the earth. Not good times. Thankfully, this ceremony didn’t involve blood or goddesses. It was a civil union, which meant that any mention of any god was decidedly missing from the vows. No one said anything about the fact that they were both male. 

Percy worried about messing up his vows, even though all he had to do was repeat after the Elvis impersonator. He didn’t fumble or stutter, which was a great relief. Percy’s hands trembled when he slipped the ring onto Luke’s finger. 

His hands were still shaking when Luke said his vows and slipped the ring onto Percy’s finger. This was normally where the married couple would kiss. Percy forgot about that tradition. Were they going to kiss? They didn’t talk about it. This wasn’t a marriage of love and romance. It was just a marriage of convenience, which oh, Percy hated to think because he liked Luke. Instead of trying to kiss him, Luke pressed their foreheads together. They breathed each other’s air for a few long moments, hands clasped between them. 

The hostess - who wore a yellow dress and had yellow hair - snapped a single photo of them. Luke hadn’t paid for a photo package but she explained that she thought they should have at least one photo. It was at no charge to them. 

Then it was time to sign the papers. There was a moment of hesitation before Percy very carefully signed as **Percy Jastellan.** Luke cocked his head as he watched then signed his name as **Luke Jastellan** without commenting on Percy’s choice of mashing up their last names. They probably should have talked about it beforehand but Luke had known that they were going to change their last names. 

They were in and out in an hour, with a freshly printed certificate of marriage with their new last name on it declaring that they were now their own people together. Percy stared at it, lightly tracing the raised official seal declaring them legal. He kept his cool through the entire ceremony and the whole process leading up to it but now he felt like he was going to cry. 

He wasn’t Percy Jackson anymore. They were safe from Annabeth. Outside of the chapel, Percy leaned his head against Luke’s shoulder. “What now?” 

“Now we go get new documents,” Luke said. He nuzzled the top of Percy’s head. “Jass-tell-en,” he said slowly. “Is that how you pronounce our last name?” 

_Our last name,_ Percy thought with a wild glee. “I think so.” He tried it out for himself. “Jastellan.” He looked at the photo that the hostess had taken, a lovely golden picture of Luke and Percy with their foreheads pressed together, looking into each other’s eyes. It made his heart swell with feelings. The hostess hadn’t seemed to notice that they were both boys and the photo showed them as they were in real life, including Luke’s scars. There didn’t seem to be a glamour on it. 

Their next and final stop for the day was to the Social Security office to get new documents. Luke made full use of his Hermes powers and Mist manipulation. This too went without a hitch. He gave them an address to mail the documents to, somewhere in Oregon. 

As soon as everything was taken care of and they stood outside once more, Luke turned to Percy. “If you want to rough it again, we can. But I don’t have the energy to drive to the next town and I am dying for the shower. Do you mind if we get a hotel room?” 

The idea made Percy’s skin crawl but one look at Luke told him that they would have to rest in a real room tonight. It wasn’t fair to expect Luke to make sacrifices without making some himself. “Okay. Just...let’s be careful, okay?” 

Luke nodded and kissed Percy’s forehead in relief.  
  
  
  
The hotel that Luke found was by far the fanciest they’ve stayed at so far. Percy’s eyes widened at the price tag. It was a good thing Hermes was paying for this. A bellhop took their bags (and Frank) up to the room for them. 

They ordered room service - fancy Mac n cheese and glass bottles of coca-colas - and ate in companionable silence. 

Percy didn’t feel like he was being forced to stay here. He didn’t feel overly enchanted by the place, as fancy as it was. He watched Luke carefully, making sure that he wasn’t under some spell either. Being here still made his skin crawl with anxiety, like ants in his suit, but it was only for one night. 

And Percy was seriously considering the benefits of disappearing into an enchanted hotel where no one could hunt them down. Stay for a few weeks and when they got out, everyone they knew would be dead. Percy would be safe. But that wasn’t necessary anymore. 

They wouldn’t be found because Annabeth didn’t know their names anymore. He smiled around his bottle of coke. 

As Luke got ready for his bath, Percy asked, “Can I come in with you?” He hoped Luke wouldn’t take that as a request for sex. 

“To the bathroom?” Luke asked, confused. 

Percy nodded. 

“I’m going to be naked.” He still had that bewildered tone to his voice and Luke’s blue eyes stared at Percy like he was a particularly confusing puzzle. 

“I won’t look,” Percy promised. 

Some of the confusion cleared from Luke’s face. He rolled his eyes. “I’m telling you for your comfort. I don’t mind if you look.” 

“Oh,” Percy said. His heart raced and his face warmed. “Can I come in?” 

Luke pursed his lips. “Give me ten minutes.” Luke took his backpack into the bathroom with him. The bathroom door was closed, but he didn’t hear a lock click. 

Percy sat on the bed and waited. 

He heard the shower turn on. Percy hadn’t been using his powers but he could still sense water nearby. If he focused, he could feel the outline of Luke’s body. If he _really_ focused, he could feel Luke’s movements. Percy didn't _really_ focus. He didn’t want to invade Luke’s privacy. At least, not anymore than he had been. Lately Luke was leaving the door open when he showered. Percy appreciated it. 

Ten minutes later exactly, the shower shut off. A minute later, the door opened. “Can you believe the bathroom is so big it takes a full minute to get from the shower to the door?” Luke stepped aside to let Percy in. He was, in fact, very naked. As promised. 

The bathroom was damp with condensation and the mirror was lightly fogged over. Now that the door was open, the fog was already clearing away. Percy could feel the water dripping down Luke’s body. 

Luke sat on the edge of the jacuzzi tub, a hand towel between his skin and the stone lining it, with a shaving razor in one hand. He lifted one leg up and started shaving. 

Percg sat on the expansive counter and crossed his legs. He bounced his knees. He couldn't quite bring himself to raise his gaze and actually look at Luke’s naked body - he could see all that golden skin in his peripherals - so instead he looked at the garbage can. There was a tiny packet of lube, one of the ones they’d gotten from Pridefest. It was squeezed empty. Percy realized what Luke had been doing. “I'm sorry for being so clingy lately,” Percy said. 

“Percy, husband-o-mine, you don't have to apologize for being vulnerable.” Luke sounded very smug about being able to call Percy his husband. He rinsed the razor and trailed it back up from ankle to knee. 

Percy’s eyes were drawn to Luke. He stared at the daisy laurel tattoo. The lights in the bathroom were too bright to see the white glow but it was still beautiful. 

“You know, I’d have married you months ago if it meant we didn’t have to go through that.” Luke frowned. “I don’t mean that in a dickish way. Just. You seem a lot happier and more relaxed now that we’re safe. And I was worried about you.” 

Percy just stared. He was in the middle of revelation. 

Luke made a few more passes with his razor. He seemed to be waiting for a reply. “Okay, what?” Luke asked. 

“I used to think that you were lying to me. That the whole nice counselor thing was an act. But you’re actually like that, aren’t you?” 

“You mean nice?” 

Percy nodded. “I mean. You actually care.” 

Luke laughed. “Damn, I really fucked up with you.” He didn’t sound happy about this, but he also didn’t sound overly surprised. Luke rinsed the razor. His expression was downcast. 

Percy only just realized how rude what he’d said was, but he didn’t take it back. There was still a small part of him that was hurt. Lately, it didn’t hurt as much as it used to. Was he healing? Is that what this was? Percy hoped so. He didn’t really want to talk about this. It was their wedding night. 

“Do you still think I’m evil?” Luke asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. His expression was still sad. He switched to his other leg. 

“No,” Percy said without hesitation. Luke was a victim, a pawn of the gods and Kronos. He made bad choices but he wasn’t evil. 

Luke shook his head. “Probably shouldn’t have waited to have this conversation till after we were married.” 

“Better late than never?” Percy suggested. 

“Probably.” Luke finished shaving his legs in silence. He set his razor aside and got up with a sigh. He stepped back into the shower. It was a shower large enough for three or four people. The doors were glass. 

Percy pulled the ribbon from his pocket and started tying it. Luke had taught him more elaborate styles of bow, which Percy was still a little clumsy with. He was barely focused on the ribbon, watching Luke with his peripherals. 

Luke washed himself, humming as he did. He was so beautiful, Percy thought. There wasn’t a thing that Percy didn’t find aesthetically pleasing about Luke. When Luke was done in the shower, he turned the water off and grabbed a towel. Then he fixed his blue eyes on Percy. “Will you dry me off?” 

For a brief second, Percy thought that Luke wanted him to use his tongue to lick the water droplets from his skin. Then Percy came to his senses and decided that Luke meant with his powers, not his tongue. He weaved the ribbon through his fingers. “Sure.” 

Luke dripped water onto the floor as he crossed to Percy. He held the towel in his hand so everything was on display. 

Percy focused on Luke’s chest, because that was a safe place to look. He touched the soft skin of Luke’s inner elbow and willed Luke dry. 

The water evaporated from Luke’s body, leaving him completely dry. Luke smiled. “That’s a neat trick. I think you got all the good powers.” He tossed the towel onto the counter beside Percy and went to his backpack. The backpack was on the floor so Luke had to bend over to pick it up. 

Percy didn’t look away fast enough to avoid seeing the flash of a lavender colored gem between Luke’s buttcheeks. A wave of heat traveled from Percy’s head all the way to his toes. His eyes were firmly on the ribbon in his hands by the time Luke turned around and set the backpack on the counter. He was so thankful that his skin was dark enough that Luke probably wouldn’t notice him blushing. 

From his backpack, Luke pulled out a simple pair of cotton panties. They were blue striped and had a small bow on the front. Luke stepped into them and pulled them up. His cock made a bulge in them even though he was soft. Next, Luke pulled out Percy’s hoodie and slipped it on over his head. “I’m gonna have to find something to cover my legs soon,” Luke commented. 

“Don’t you trust the heater?” Percy asked. He liked how Luke looked and he liked that Luke kept wearing his hoodie...but it didn’t turn him on. Not really. Abstractly, he knew that others would see Luke and think about how fuckable he looked but Percy wasn’t overcome by lust or whatever. 

Luke hummed. Now that he was dressed, he took the time to brush his hair. “I trust this heater. But all it’ll take is one cold room during winter and I’ll freeze off my extremities.” 

Percy found himself smiling. “I’ll keep you warm.” 

Luke smiled at him. “I'll hold you to it.” He winked, then went back to grooming. After his hair was brushed, Luke brushed his teeth and flossed. He took very good care of his teeth, always. When he was groomed to his satisfaction, Luke closed the distance between them again. He leaned forward slowly, giving Percy plenty of time to back away or decline, then rubbed his cheek against Percy’s cheek. The smell of hot candle wax, green apple shampoo, and salt flooded Percy’s nose. 

Percy hummed happily. He nuzzled Luke back, inhaling Luke’s scent. Luke really did smell like Percy now, as though his pheromones knew that they were irrevocably connected to each other. 

“Let’s go see what’s on TV,” Luke suggested after a long moment. He pulled away. “Unless you wanna shower first?” 

Percy felt like maybe he was missing out on the nice shower if he didn’t take advantage. He thought that maybe he should be clean for Luke. “I’ll shower first,” he said. “Go find something good to watch. I’ll be fast.” 

Luke nodded, offering Percy a small smile. He left the bathroom, leaving the door open the way Percy liked. 

Percy took a quick shower, scrubbing his skin. His mind was firmly on Luke and whether or not Luke would want to consummate their wedding. So far, Luke hadn’t said anything. But when Percy thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time Luke had slunk off to some semi-hidden place with a boy. Surely it was only a matter of time. Unless Luke didn’t want Percy like that. Which would be fine...they weren’t a real couple and Percy was almost positive that he didn’t want to have sex. Definitely not now, maybe not ever. 

He got out of the shower and willed himself dry, then pulled on his pajamas. They were the same Heracles ones from Camp and Percy made a face at the sight of Heracles’ cartoon face. As a wedding present to himself, he would buy new pajamas the first chance they got. Percy brushed his hair, brushed his teeth, flossed, put deodorant on, and was picking at his face when he realized that he was stalling. 

What if Luke wanted to have sex? He had that toy in. How many times has he had that in though? This probably wasn’t the first time. So Luke probably wasn’t expecting anything from him. Right? 

Well, there was only one way to find out. 

Percy left the bathroom. It took two minutes to walk to their bed. Bed, singular, because they were in the honeymoon suite of a fancy hotel. 

“I hope you don’t mind CSI because there’s nothing else on except game shows and Spanish news,” Luke said when he noticed Percy. He reclined against the fabric headboard, covers drawn up to his waist. The heater was on and through the windows, Percy could see snow falling. 

Percy shrugged. He climbed into bed beside Luke. “I don’t mind.” His heart raced. He sat close to Luke but not quite touching. Was it weirder to not touch than to touch? He wished for his ribbon but it was on the bathroom counter. Percy remembered Luke telling him that he wasn’t an animal chained to his lust. 

They sat together in the lavish honeymoon suite, watching CSI until they fell asleep. Luke didn’t ask to consummate their marriage. Percy didn’t bring it up and he fell asleep, finally at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke, literally kissing Percy, keeping the daisy ring, doing all sorts of cute shit, marrying him.  
> Percy: I don't think he likes me. 
> 
> The next chapter (6) is my absolute favorite. I cannot wait for ya'll to read it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darling breaks down so Luke and Percy are stuck in Union Creek, Oregon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said it before, but this is my favorite chapter. I'm so excited for you guys to read it and I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it. 
> 
> Songs Luke sings: [What About Now by Lonestar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugBlWTW8aPE) and [It’s Your Love by Tim McGraw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRa7lP5--lE)

### “As I got to know you, I began to realise that beauty was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel actual, physical pain every time you left the room that it finally dawned on me: I was in love, for the first time in my life.” — Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons 

The temptation of the Pacific ocean was right there. They were only a few hours drive from Los Angeles. Percy may have had a phobia of the water but the fear couldn’t erase the longing within him. He wanted to step into the tide and feel the push and pull of the waves. He wanted sand between his toes and the salty scent of life in his nose. Percy kept these thoughts to himself as they drove north toward Reno, Nevada. 

Luke turned the volume up on the radio. “Alright, this is it, Percy.” 

“What is what?” 

“This is our retirement song,” Luke clarified. He hummed along with the guitar intro, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. The braided wedding ring on his left ring finger twinkled in the light of a passing car’s headlights. “The sign in the window said for sale or trade / on the last remaining dinosaur Detroit made / seven hundred dollars was a heck of a deal / for a four-hundred-horsepower jukebox on wheels.” 

Percy knew that he knew the song but he couldn’t think of the words until after Luke sang them. 

Luke watched Percy from the corner of his eye, taking in his reaction. “And that road rolls out like a welcome mat / I don't know where it goes, but it beats where we're at / we always said someday, somehow / we were gonna get away, gonna blow this town.” 

Luke really got into singing, especially when he was behind the wheel of Darling. He danced in his seat, moving his whole body while he sang. His foot seemed to turn to lead while he sang and the needle on the speedometer climbed. “What about now? How 'bout tonight? / Baby, for once let's don't think twice / let's take that spin that never ends / that we've been talking about what about now? Why should we wait? / we can chase these dreams down the interstate / and be long gone 'fore the world moves on and makes another round / what about now?” 

Percy loved Luke’s singing but this was not their retirement song. “This is what you should have sang the day we left New York.” 

“I told you that I don’t control the radio,” Luke said with a sigh. He didn’t seem upset about it. 

“Why are we going north again? We’ve already been through here.” 

Luke rolled his eyes. “You mean you drove through like a madman and we didn’t stop to see _anything._ Do you have any idea how many tourist spots there are in Oregon?” 

Percy hesitated, trying to quell his lingering nervousness. They had a good time just driving wherever they wanted to go before Nico found them. They enjoyed the tourist traps and sightseeing. Driving through with as few stops as possible, staying in the car for hours and hours, wasn’t actually very fun. This wasn’t just about escaping the unwanted burden of being demigods; it was about enjoying life. “It would be nice to start living again,” he admitted finally. 

“Great,” Luke said, pausing his singing. “We’re going back to Oregon then.” 

“What’s in Oregon that you want to see so much?” Percy asked. 

Luke pointed to the glove box. “There’s a brochure in there about a lake.” 

Percy gave the glove box a dubious look. There were corners of brochures sticking out of the seams, part of Luke’s collection. The glove box was full to capacity and opening it seemed like asking for disaster. So instead of doing that, he scooted across the seat to press up against Luke’s side. “What kind of lake?” 

“It used to be a volcano.” 

Percy shivered. His one encounter with a volcano had resulted in him being engulfed in lava and soaring through the sky into the ocean. It was not a pleasant memory. 

Luke didn’t notice. “But it’s been inactive for thousands of years and the volcano collapsed to make the lake. The water comes from snowmelt and rainfall so it’s one of the clearest and cleanest lakes in the world.” He gestured again to the glovebox. “It’s supposed to be...a spiritual place.” 

Percy didn’t like the sound of that either. Usually when mortals found spiritual places, they had something to do with the gods. If it didn’t belong to a Greek god, well there were always the Romans, and probably others that Percy didn’t even know about. Why would just the Greek gods be real? Why not other religions too? Why not gods that were so old they were forgotten? “You’re crazy,” he announced. 

Luke licked his lips. “Why do you say that?” 

“Because you want to go into a god’s territory,” Percy said. He wondered not for the first time how much of Hermes’ wanderlust transferred to his children. Did they constantly feel the need to be on the move? To see new things? Have new experiences? Luke was open to almost everything, including risking the notice of a god that might not be benevolent toward them. And why? 

“It’s supposed to be really pretty,” Luke said. Well that was why. “And we can’t just avoid anyplace that a god might be. That’s the whole world. They made the world...and the pocket worlds.” 

“Pocket worlds?” Percy echoed, disliking this conversation the longer it went on. 

“Like Olympus, or the Underworld, or the Garden of Hesperides. Your dad’s palace is probably in a pocket world too.” Luke shrugged. “How do you think everyone fits? The Titans and the Olympians and the ones who came before them. Not to mention gods from other cultures.” 

Percy frowned as he thought about it. Mostly, he’d thought that those places were just hidden places in the world they inhabited but they did seem to exist on their own time, with their own weather, and their own rules. “If we die, I’m never speaking to you again.” 

“No promises,” Luke said cheerfully. 

Shortly before hitting the really high elevations, they stopped at a department store and stocked up on winter clothing; boots, hats, gloves, scarves, long sleeve shirts, snow pants, and thick socks. The winter clothes took up a lot more room than their summer clothes but they were a necessity. Percy also got new pajamas; a nice flannel set that would keep him warm and, most importantly, didn’t have Heracles’ face on them.  
  
  
  


It was a long drive up to Crater Lake without many places to stop for services. After forty-five minutes of driving without seeing a town, Percy wondered just how isolated this lake was. There was snow piled high on the ground, fresh powder blocking out the sooty gray that lined the roads. Percy had taken the time to dig through the glovebox for the brochure Luke told him about. He had to admit that it looked breathtaking. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be literally breathtaking. 

There was no one else in the parking lot, which seemed like a bad sign. When a forest green Jeep pulled up a few minutes later, that still didn’t seem like a good sign. The air was crisp, clean, and cold. It was also charged with magic. This was the type of magic that seemed to say at once _go away_ and _come closer_. It made Percy’s hackles rise. They weren’t welcome here. 

“Well, we’re already trespassing,” Luke reasoned. “So we might as well get a good look before shit hits the fan.” He led the way from the parking lot to a low stone wall that separated tourists from a twenty foot drop. The drop wasn’t straight down, but it was a near thing. 

Crater Lake was gorgeous. There were probably other words to describe it than gorgeous but it was what came to Percy’s mind first. The view was astonishing. The lake was bigger than he thought it would be and it did look like a crater. There was an island in the distance, with what looked like trees growing on it, which was how Percy knew that the lake was bigger than it looked from his vantage point. 

They walked along the stone path, down to a building that said it was a lodge and then further down, closer to the water, where another building rested. Both of them were locked. The snow was high and it was clear that no one had been here for a while. 

Percy eyed the blue water nervously. It reflected the sky perfectly, looking like a mirror. It looked like if you jumped down, you would be falling up. That kind of thing was nerve-wracking. Percy wasn’t sure that this particular water was friendly toward him. He was certain that he would drown if he tried to control it, let alone if he dared to swim. Because of this, he stuck close to Luke’s side. 

If Luke noticed the complete and utter silence that hung around them, he didn’t say anything. If he noticed how tempting the lake looked, as though it was beckoning them, he didn’t show it. The fact that he didn’t try to break into any of the buildings said a lot more than words would have. 

Percy found himself scenting the air, trying to figure out what was there. Gods tended to have a specific scent but it could be as vague as hot wax (Hermes) or old books (Athena) or wheat (Demeter). It was rare to find a god with a scent that could be immediately pinpointed as godlike. The air around the lake just smelled cold. If Apollo could smell like sunshine, then Percy assumed that there was a god who could smell like the cold. 

There was a long moment where Luke paused to look into the woods, slipping his hand into Percy’s and standing still like a hunting dog sighting something. Then he relaxed and kept walking. They didn’t speak. The lake didn’t seem to encourage speaking. But he did smile faintly at Percy. 

When they were cold and tired of trudging through the snow, looking at the lake, they returned to the Impala. Percy tried the engine and when it just sputtered, he switched seats with Luke. Maybe Luke had the magic touch. 

Except he didn’t. Darling’s engine simply wouldn’t start. 

“Well fuck,” Luke said mildly. He glanced at Percy and when he saw the expression on his face, he pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare. And don’t worry. We aren’t stuck here.” Luke got out of the car and wandered over to the forest green Jeep that had pulled up shortly after them. 

Percy slid back into the driver's seat and tried to get Darling to start up again. Of course she wouldn’t. Was it because of where they were or was it because Hermes was no longer protecting them? Both options were bad. There were almost no people at the lake because it was winter and the snow was forty-four inches deep. This was not tourist season. If the person in the Jeep didn’t help them, then they were royally fucked. Unless they broke into the lodge or the gift shop but there was no guarantee they could get the heat on or the water working... 

Luke returned. “Get your stuff, baby. I got us a ride into town.” He opened the trunk and took out his backpack. 

They brought their blankets and pillows with them. Percy hated to leave Frank but he didn’t see a way to make the giant panda and their stuff fit in the backseat of the Jeep. He climbed into the back seat of the Jeep with Luke. It was a tight squeeze. There was a lot of stuff - a backpack and huge first aid kit, a fishing pole, some sharp looking tools, rope, extra boots, a sleeping bag, a grocery bag full of granola bars, a forty pound bag of dog food, and a case of water - crammed into the back seat even before the two of them were there. They wound up pressed thigh to thigh, shoulder to shoulder. Their pillows and blankets went on their laps. Their backpacks were at their feet. 

“Hi! I’m Bobby. This here is Lily.” The man in the Jeep looked like Paul Bunion. He was around six foot six and built like a tank. His beard was red and his eyes were the reddish brown of redwood bark. He wore a flannel patterned coat and a beanie on his head. Sitting next to him in the passenger seat was a border collie. She was black and white and her black eyes peered at them intelligently. That must have been Lily. 

Once they were in, Bobby pulled away from the lake’s parking lot. Percy watched the car get smaller and smaller. It felt wrong to leave Darling but Bobby had lent them a tarp to help protect her from the snow and her doors were locked. 

The nearest town was forty minutes away and went by the name of Union Creek. They learned a lot about the history of Crater Lake and Union Creek and Bobby’s history during that drive because Bobby did. Not. Shut. Up. The man spoke the whole drive, with Lily sometimes barking agreement from the passenger seat. 

Luke turned his face toward Percy, murmured in his ear, lips brushing against Percy’s skin, “I’m sorry. I should have listened to you about the lake.” 

Percy’s heart stuttered in his chest. He slid his hand across to Luke’s thigh. There was no worry about being seen with the sheer amount of stuff on and around them. Still, he didn’t dare to turn his face toward Luke’s. Especially once he felt the heat of Luke’s thigh through his pants. It made a flush of warmth travel through Percy. “It’s okay. I liked the lake even if it’s creepy as heck.” 

“Bobby said we can send someone from town to tow Darling back to us and there’s a mechanic. But it’ll take a few days because of the weather.” Luke’s breath smelled like coffee and ghosted across Percy’s skin. 

It wasn’t often that Percy really, _really_ felt aroused. In fact, it almost never happened. And when it did, he was usually content to take care of it himself. But something made Percy’s blood rush to his cock and he found himself wanting Luke’s hand to find the heat between his legs and take care of it for him. He was suddenly aware of how easy it would be, even in this small Jeep. Bobby wasn’t paying attention to them and it wasn’t like they couldn’t play poker face. His heart beat fast in his chest and he almost slid his hand further up Luke’s thigh...until he remembered Luke had never kissed him - not even on their wedding day - and he never expressed any interest in Percy sexually. Percy angled his face away...but he kept his hand on Luke’s thigh. 

They made a stop by the mechanic shop to arrange for a tow. Squeezing out of the backseat and then back into it was a challenge. He could swear that Lily was laughing at them. The next stop was to the hotel. Which wasn’t an actual hotel, but a series of cabins surrounding a lodge. It was a huge property and it reminded Percy of Camp Half-Blood, except the trees were different in the Western half of the country. 

Bobby and Lily escorted them inside the lodge. It was a huge log cabin type building that was a general store, a gift shop, a series of offices, and a living space on the inside. Bobby explained their predicament to the elderly woman behind the counter. 

Luke slid an arm around Percy’s shoulder. “Money isn’t an issue, ma’am. We just need a place to spend a few days while the mechanics work their magic on Darling.” Luke gave a wry smile. “Sorry, I mean our car.” 

The elderly woman squinted at them for a long time. Just when Percy thought she was going to turn them out for being in a same sex marriage, she nodded. “Let me see what we’ve got available.” She took out a large planner and set it on the counter between them. “Several days, hmm.” She flipped through the pages of the planner. It looked like a cheat sheet for the amenities of each of the cabins. “Cabin three is available right now. We just upgraded it. You can come to the lodge to eat your meals or we have a cafe across the road.” 

“That sounds great,” Luke said. He handed her his credit card. 

The woman looked at it for a long moment - probably checking to make sure that it was real - then said. “How does four days sound?” 

Luke nodded his consent. 

The cabin they were led to was very, very small. The walls were brown with white outlining the door and one narrow window. “It’ll be cold for a bit but the heaters warm it up fast,” the elderly woman said. She hadn’t introduced herself and wasn’t wearing a name tag. Percy didn’t care so long as she didn’t turn into a monster. 

The inside was very, very small. There was a queen sized bed that took up almost the entire space. A side table by the bed held a lamp and an alarm clock. Where the hardwood ended, checkered tile began and led into a teeny tiny kitchen. If you could call the mini fridge and microwave a kitchen. There was a small table with two chairs. A door led into an equally tiny bathroom that held a sink, toilet, and very small shower. The woman gave them a quick tour then explained how to use the heater and left them alone. 

Luke locked the door behind her. 

The heat wasn’t on and he was cold, so Percy made a beeline for the shower and prayed that there was hot water. He didn’t even get undressed before checking to see that the water ran hot. It did. Once he was in the shower, it was bliss despite how small the stall was. The heat chased away the chill of winter. Percy made use of the opaque shower curtain and took the opportunity to get off. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d touched himself. 

When Percy got out of the shower and was dressed, he found Luke sitting on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. His back was to Percy and he didn’t react when Percy climbed onto the bed and crawled across to him. Percy flopped onto his back, going belly up, so that he could look at Luke’s face. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly. 

Luke seemed to notice him for the first time. He lifted his head from his hands. “Yeah. Fine.” There was a pause and then he said in a rush, “I’m so glad that this is happening now and a few days ago.” His face turned red with embarrassment and he wouldn’t meet Percy’s eye. His head dropped back down to his hands. 

Shock made Percy’s eyes widen. He rolled away, onto his knees so that he knelt on the edge of the bed. “Why do you say that?” He tried to keep his hackles down because he didn’t want to start off their marriage with fighting. 

“Because now that it’s almost impossible to find us, your anxiety has been…” Luke struggled to find a word. “At normal levels,” he finished with a long exhale. He lifted his face again, met Percy’s gaze. His blue eyes were pleading with Percy to understand. “I mean, you barely let us stop to eat or get gas. We drove through every city like hellhounds were on our heels. Did you think that I didn’t know you were awake checking the locks for hours and jumping at every sound?” Luke pushed on before Percy could reply, “If we were stuck here while you were like that, I...I would be worried about you slipping off in the night and dying of exposure before I could bring you back.” 

Percy went absolutely perfectly still. He didn’t even breathe. The admission rocked him to his core, shook him up like a can of soda. What was he supposed to say to that? How could he refute the accusation that he would have slipped off and left Luke alone - how could Luke think that Percy would leave him alone - in the dead of night just so that he wouldn’t be caught? Was he really that bad? Would he have left Luke alone to face the consequences of their actions without him? He looked out the window, where snowflakes swirled past, illuminated by the light pouring from inside the cabin. Would Percy rather die of exposure than risk being caught? Presently he became aware that his entire body was shaking. 

“I didn’t know what to do,” Luke groaned into his hands. His shoulders were hunched, body rigid with tension. 

Percy swallowed. It occurred to him that maybe he’d been a little unhinged and that it wasn’t fair to Luke. He draped himself over Luke’s back. “I’m sorry.” 

“I ain’t a therapist. I only went for a few months. I had no idea how to help you. I still don’t know,” Luke said. He sounded so unhappy, so miserable and hurt like he had when he held the sky on his shoulders. Percy and his issues were the sky now. 

Percy nuzzled the back of Luke’s head. “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you if...if I start to get bad again.” He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t promise that he wouldn’t get bad again. “Do...do you regret coming with me?” Because he had to know. 

Luke shook his head, then said, “No.” He wiped his eyes on his sweater sleeve. “I don’t regret our trip. It’s...everything before this that I regret. I wish I’d never touched that bolt.” 

Percy wondered if Luke had been crying but he didn’t lift his head from where it rested against Luke’s shoulders to look. “Your master would have found someone else. It still would have happened.” 

“But not to me. Not to us.” Luke reached around and took Percy’s right hand. He held it tight and pressed his thumb into Percy’s palm. He remembered the scar that he’d never seen. 

Percy let Luke hold his hand. He stayed pressed against Luke in solidarity. They weren’t alone and Percy wasn’t going to abandon Luke. “I’m sorry,” Percy whispered again. 

“It isn’t your fault.” In the reflection of the window, Luke still looked so sad. The weight of the world on his shoulders. 

Maybe Percy should move. He searched for the words that would make this better. With Annabeth, Percy usually had to concede that he was wrong - whether he was or not - and apologize and then there was usually some touching of genitals because only orgasms and obedience made her forgive him. Percy was fairly certain that if he tried any of that with Luke - aside from the apologizing he already did - then he would be the one to get up and die of exposure in the snow. So they sat together in silence while Percy tried and tried to think of something comforting to say. 

Before the words came to him, Luke twisted around so that they were face to face, chest to chest. His blue eyes bored into Percy’s green ones. Their noses almost touched. “If it gets bad again, tell me so that you don’t freeze alone.” 

Percy narrowed his eyes, reading between Luke’s lines. “She won’t find us with our names and we haven’t been leaving a trail. So I don’t think it will get bad again and we won’t freeze. But I’ll tell you.” He turned his face away so that he wasn’t yawning directly in Luke’s face. 

Luke’s expression softened. He stood up and gestured for Percy to do the same. Once Percy was on his feet, Luke turned the bed down. It was a queen sized bed and the comforter had black bears on it. The sheets and pillow cases also had little black bears on them. “I’m noticing a theme,” Luke said dryly. 

“Do you think I’d win in a fight with a bear?” Percy asked as he crawled onto the sheets. The bed was close enough to the wall that he could reach across and flip the light switch off. It was instant darkness, the kind of darkness that came from being in the middle of nowhere. 

Luke joined him and pulled the covers over both of them. “Maybe. Probably.” The room was a little chilly even with the heater on. He pressed up close to Percy, wrapped his arms around him and held him close. “Is this okay?” 

“Yeah,” Percy whispered back. He slid his arms around Luke. Even though their faces were only inches apart, and they were sharing a pillow, Percy couldn’t see Luke at all. The day had been mildly stressful and Percy fell asleep quickly.  
  
  
  


In the morning, Percy woke with the sun. They’d forgotten to close the curtains. He blinked awake, rubbed the grit from his eyes. He felt stiff and sore, and realized it was because he hadn’t moved at all in the night. 

Luke was still asleep. He wasn’t normally a side-sleeper but he didn’t let go of Percy throughout the night. 

The second that Percy pulled away, Luke rolled onto his stomach. He made a small sound but otherwise didn’t wake. 

Percy gently pushed one of Luke’s curls out of his eyes and behind his ear. He reflected on Luke’s hair for a while, on how it used to be straighter but after shaving it, it grew back with some serious curl. Like Hermes’ hair except white gold instead of inky black. In the light of the rising sun, Luke’s hair was almost its old shade of gold. Almost. 

Percy hovered his fingertips over the lichtenberg figure scars that spread like delicate frost across Luke’s face. They were beautiful, a lovely shade of pink that grew pale when he blushed. Percy wanted to touch them but...he didn’t have permission. Instead, he rested his hand on the back of Luke’s neck and stroked the soft hairs there. 

The sun was a little higher in the sky when Luke woke up. He found Percy watching him sleep, still stroking the back of his neck. “Morning,” Luke said. 

“Morning,” Percy said. “I think we should check out that cafe across the street because I’m really hungry.” His stomach growled, accentuating his point. 

“Okay.” Luke pulled Percy’s hand from his neck and kissed his knuckles. Then he let go and made his way to the bathroom to piss. 

Percy got up and got dressed in warm clothes. He wasn’t sure how cold it got here but it felt similar to a winter in New York City. Maybe a few degrees warmer. Layers were his friend. If he got too hot then he could always take something off but if it was too cold, he would be miserable. Percy pushed his feet into the new boots. By the time he was dressed, Luke was out of the bathroom and it was Percy’s turn to piss. Percy emptied his bladder, washed his hands, put on deodorant, and then picked at his teeth and tried to do something about his messy gray hair. 

When he came out, Luke was dressed and ready to go. He held the door for Percy and they trooped across the snow toward a series of wooden buildings on the other side of the highway. It being winter, there was almost no traffic, and they crossed the two lane highway with no problems. 

Beckies Cafe was a cute cabin-esque building that was absolutely piled with snow. There was a narrow walkway between high walls of snow and even the garbage can on the porch was almost buried. Christmas lights in the shape of large snowflakes hung from the porch. A neon sign in the window declared that they were open. Inside the cafe were high-backed wooden bench seats against one wall and a few square tables against the window wall. Percy thought that it was rather cozy and most importantly, it was warm and smelled good. 

They were allowed to seat themselves and chose a window seat to look out at the huge snow drifts and forest beyond that. Luke got the country fried steak and Percy chose the cinnamon roll french toast. Percy ordered a hot chocolate and Luke chose a hot spiced cider. He seemed upset that there wasn’t coffee on the menu. 

“Do you think you got enough sugar?” Luke teased him when the waitress left to fill their orders. 

“You have the taste buds of an old man,” Percy countered good-naturedly. He slid his feet across to Luke’s side of the table. 

Their drinks came, delicious and warm. It was good hot chocolate. The food came shortly after and they tucked in with the appetites of people who hadn’t eaten since the day before. The food tasted exactly like every other mom and pop restaurant they had stopped in during their drive across the United States. Not bad but not exceptional. 

Once their bellies were full, Luke got up and used the payphone to call the mechanic and check on their car. He returned from the phone. “They’re about to head up to get Darling and bring her into town. He still doesn’t know how long it’ll take to fix her.” 

Percy nodded. “We already paid for four days.” He licked the icing from the corner of his mouth. 

Luke shrugged. “Doesn’t mean we have to stay.” He paid their bill and got a refill of his hot spiced cider to go. “Wanna check out what’s around here?” 

“Sure.” 

Together they left the cafe and started walking toward the other buildings on this side of the road. There was an ice cream shop that was probably really popular in the summer during tourist season. A few more rental cabins were tucked away into the woods. Percy and Luke walked along a paved road that had been plowed sometime recently, going up to the empty cabins to peer into the windows. 

“These ones have real kitchens,” Percy noted. 

“They’re really outdated, though,” Luke commented. “I think ours was just renovated.” 

Percy nodded agreement and they kept walking. The paved road led them back up beside the cafe. “How did you make a call on the pay phone?” 

Luke grinned at him, “I tricked the phone into thinking I paid.” 

“How do you do all this stuff?” Percy demanded to know. 

A car drove past before they crossed the highway back to the lodge side. They walked through the snow around the lodge. It was deep, powdery snow and it threatened to fall into Percy’s boots. To their right ran a frozen creek that looked like maybe it would be good for fishing during warmer months. The creek ran in both directions as far as Percy could see, and dipped beneath the highway to reappear on the other side. 

Luke shrugged. “It’s just something I can do.” He looked thoughtfully at the frozen creek that ran parallel beside them. “Maybe I get it from my dad. He’s the god of a lot of things like roads, travel, messages, and merchants. There’s a lot of communication overlap there. I’m really good with languages too. It’s like...if I hear enough of a language, then I suddenly know all of it. Like I already had the knowledge and just had to be reminded.” 

Percy huffed. “You get all the cool powers, then.” 

“You can control water,” Luke reminded him. “And cause storms and talk to horses and -” 

“Shouldn’t you be able to talk to horses too? I know that my dad made them but horses were used for travel a lot.” Percy’s face warmed and he ducked his head. “Sorry.” 

Luke didn’t seem to mind. “I don’t think it extends to animals,” he admitted. “Do you...what’s it like talking to them?” 

Percy stopped walking and focused on the creek. He closed his eyes and strained his ears. He heard the sleepy thoughts of cold fish. He opened his eyes to see Luke staring at him. “Kind of annoying. I can’t control it. Blackjack used to wake me up to go rescue sea animals in danger.” 

“Does our hero want to leave sea animals in peril?” Luke teased, smiling. He walked a little farther up stream. 

Percy rolled his eyes and followed him. “Did you know that Blackjack can fly like a hundred miles a minute? I’d be hauled out of bed for some emergency in the Mariana Trench or the Norweigan Sea or the Great Australian Bight. And then Blackjack would be too tired to fly me back right away so I’d have Mr. D show up and tie me up with vines and be all ‘Mr. Johnson, are you aware that it’s my duty as camp director to know where all my campers are at all times, blah, blah, blah.’ It was ridiculous.” It felt good to vent about the problem even though it was long since over. 

Luke laughed, bright and clear. It delighted Percy to hear it. “That sounds rough. Mr. D is full of shit. He only cared because we were supposed to die according to prophecies, not on his time.” 

“You know, Blackjack is the reason I made friends with the Ophiotaurus. She got me up in the middle of the night to rescue it.” Percy glanced at Luke to gauge his reaction. The fact that Percy - and later Thalia - refused to slaughter the Ophiotaurus had caused Luke a great deal of punishment. 

Luke was shaking his head, a smile still on his face. “That mare was always a pain in my ass.” 

Percy snorted. “She really didn’t like you. How did you get her?” 

Luke glanced at him. “Do you really want to know?” His expression was impish, eyes glittering with a joke. 

“I asked, didn’t I?” 

“Okay, okay.” Luke brushed the snow off a picnic table and sat on the damp wood. “We used to have a bay stallion. Hell of a pegasus. Easily nineteen hands. Unfortunately, he got eaten by the drakon when we brought it in.” Luke closed his eyes and smiled, the memory making him laugh. “We found a herd of pegasi and used the stallion’s piss to lure one in.” 

Percy’s eyes widened. His jaw literally dropped. “What? How? Why?” 

Luke burst out laughing. “Well, you know male animals like to piss all over their territory. Especially when they’re ready to mate. So we had a stable just. Covered in it. And -” Luke broke off to laugh again. “And we got as close to land as possible and opened the stable doors and waited.” He wiped the tears from his eyes. His cheeks were pink with mirth. 

“Oh my _gods_. You’re telling me that Blackjack got herself captured because she was _horny?_ ” Percy was so embarrassed on Blackjack’s behalf that he covered his face with his gloved hands. He couldn’t help the laughter that slipped out. At least Blackjack wouldn’t be able to hear it. “No wonder she hated you. She thought you were a hot stallion and got a demigod instead.” 

Luke nodded. He jumped down off the table and kept walking. They passed a cabin by the creek and then came to a sign advertising hiking trails. The trail was covered in snow so they kept to the paved road. “You don’t think I’m a hot stallion?” 

Percy laughed. “You’re something, alright.” 

The morning was spent walking around the resort grounds. There was an amphitheatre that was just an empty clearing and some nice pine trees on one side. It was significantly less impressive than the amphitheatre at Camp Half-Blood. More trail signs marked the beginning of paths that led deeper into the forest. Some of the cabins were in use and they avoided those, but the ones that were empty they peeked into the windows of. 

When afternoon came, they found themselves back in Beckie’s Cafe for lunch. They ordered sandwiches; a french dip for Luke and a classic patty melt for Percy. Luke got more of the hot spiced cider. 

“Husband,” Luke said as they finished their lunch. “I think we should get some pie to go.” 

Percy wasn’t sure how he felt about being called husband. He was used to baby, which was typically said in sympathy or in a playful voice. Husband was said in a different tone, a sort of grown up tone like Luke had finally realized that he was an adult. “That sounds good,” Percy agreed. “What kind of pie do they have?” 

Luke craned his neck to view a line of shelves on one wall that held boxes of pies. “It appears to be pecan. Do you like pecans?” 

“I have no idea.” 

“It’s sweet and nutty,” Luke said helpfully. 

“Like you?” Percy teased. 

Luke flashed him a grin. “Exactly like me. I’m going to go get us one.” He ambled over to procure a pecan pie. 

When he came back, Percy stood and they left for their cabin. 

“They gave me plastic silverware and napkins,” Luke said as they watched a car speed past on the highway. They crossed together. “I think that we should have pie for dinner. If you like it. Otherwise, _I’ll_ have pie for dinner and you can find yourself something.” As soon as they were inside, Luke set the pie on the table and opened the box. He dug out a plastic fork from the bag and handed it to Percy. 

Percy stared down at the pie - which wasn’t cut into slices - and tried to figure out the best way to eat it. He wound up taking a small chunk out of the crust, which gave him almost no filling. 

“Dear gods, he has no idea how to eat a pie,” Luke muttered under his breath. 

Percy stuck the piece into his mouth. The crust was buttery and flakey. The filling was sweet and nutty, as Luke had promised. It almost tasted like caramel. He forked another bite, this time more filling than crust, and stuck that in his mouth too. “Looks like I’m not going to have to scrounge up my own dinner. It tastes good.” 

Luke beamed at him. “Great!” 

Percy eyed him. “So how do you eat pie?” 

Luke plucked the fork from Percy’s hand and took a big scoop from the center. He got mostly filling and shoved it into his mouth in one bite. Then he grinned at Percy, cheeks stuffed full of pie. 

“Luke!” Percy said, pretending to be scandalized. He stole his fork back. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon walking off their lunch and exploring more of the surrounding woods. They never left sight of the cabins even though Luke assured Percy that he could guide them back. This was weather that they didn’t know and they were still close to the lake that didn’t seem to like them. 

In the evening, they ate pie, showered, and talked about simple things like the weather and some of the other tourists staying at the resort. They made a game of thinking up backstories for the people they’d glimpsed in the other occupied cabins. Then it was time for bed.  
  
  
  


Day three was spent outside as well. The activities advertised for were only available during the summer so they were stuck with mostly walking. Once Luke realized that there was a designated place to play horseshoe, he convinced the owners to lend them shovels and iron horseshoes so that they could dig it out and play. Nevermind that when it snowed again, the spot would fill up again. 

It turned out that neither of them actually knew how to play horseshoe, so they just did their best and made up rules and a point system as they went. Then they got into an argument about who won, but it was the playful kind of argument. 

Before dinner, they returned the shovels and the horseshoes. The elderly woman seemed to have thawed toward them somewhat. But only somewhat. She still eyed them like they were going to go after her silver. A wall separated the country store from the office, so they had to go back outside and in through another door to check it out. 

The country store/gift shop was smaller than Percy thought it would be. A good section of it was taken up by things like groceries and a huge selection of beers and wine. There was a small section of winter clothes and a larger selection of candles. Percy wondered what they needed to sell so many candles for. There were also books, games, and artwork done by local artists. Percy wasn’t much for most of the games but he did pick up a deck of cards and raise an eyebrow to Luke in question. 

“Sure. I’ll play cards with you,” Luke said and then was immediately drawn into the book section. He browsed the paperback novels, reading the backs of them. They were newly printed books but looked like titles that had been popular a few years ago rather than recently. A few books went to the crook of his arm for purchasing. 

Then Luke got down to the real business of securing them food. He bought boxes of jerky and granola bars and a few cans of soup; nevermind that they didn’t have anything to eat the soup in except the can. He bought some instant coffee, a Crater Lake souvenir mug, bottles of water, and a small carton of orange juice. 

Percy added a few bags of pretzels, some candy bars, and a small word search book to the pile. He couldn’t find any cheap ballpoint pens so Percy bought a pen that boasted the Union Creek Resort logo and address on it. 

They were given paper bags to carry everything back to their cabin with. “We should have got toothpaste,” Percy realized as they stomped the snow off their boots. 

“We’ll be fine till tomorrow,” Luke said. And so they were.  
  
  
  


It wasn’t until everything stayed exactly the same, that Percy realized he’d been expecting things to change after he and Luke were wed. Perhaps it was silly to expect matrimony to change their relationship when he himself didn’t think of them as anything more than friends with a fancy title. Luke was no more or less affectionate than before. The biggest change - aside from the rings on their fingers - was that Luke now liked to call Percy husband as well as baby. 

Sometimes Percy looked at Luke and desperately wanted to kiss him. He wanted to be swept off his feet and kissed and have all of Luke’s attention on him. But he didn’t want what typically came after. Usually. The first and last time he wanted to be touched by Luke was in Bobby’s Jeep on the way to Union Creek. Maybe the want would come back and maybe it wouldn’t. 

Sometimes Percy looked at Luke and wondered when the last time he’d had sex was. Percy couldn’t remember the last time Luke had slipped off with another man. He suspected that it was his fault Luke wasn’t going off anymore. He was a burden to Luke. 

Percy was not handling his shit, so Luke had to handle it for him. Luke was doing an excellent job. He was holding himself - and Percy - together quite well. Even his freak out the night they arrived at the cabin was due to relief and not fear. 

He thought of all of this while he sat on the bed, staring at Luke and tying his ribbon into a bow. Luke sat at the table, his back against the wall and one leg drawn up, reading a paperback thriller about some murderer. He was engrossed in his book, as he usually became when he read, and so he wasn’t aware that Percy had been staring at him for the better part of the last few hours. 

It was another twenty minutes before Luke set the book down and stretched. He yawned. Then he noticed Percy looking at him. “What?” 

“Why are you always the one supporting me?” 

Luke cocked his head. “What?” he asked, confused this time. 

“I feel like...I’m not holding any of my shit together but you’re…” Percy gestured to him, unsure of what he even meant by it. “Very well adjusted.” 

“Ooh,” Luke said. “What makes you think I’m well adjusted?” 

“Um, because you seem to be very well adjusted,” Percy said, unsure of what proof exactly Luke was looking for. 

“Well I did spend my entire life, particularly after I turned seventeen, pretending like nothing was wrong,” Luke said slowly. He was giving Percy a strange look. 

“Yes,” Percy agreed, exasperated. “I know.” 

“Are you okay?” Luke asked. 

Which was probably the worst thing he could have said. Percy growled, annoyed. “Stop asking me that! It isn’t fair!” 

Luke looked surprised. “Why?” 

“Because I want to support you too! It isn’t fair if I’m the only one who gets support!” Percy snapped. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and puffed out his cheeks. When he realized what he was doing, he let the air out of his cheeks. 

Luke was looking at him with an expression of amusement and concern. “Percy, you do support me.” Luke got up and made his way to the bed. He cupped Percy’s face. “You supported me when I got to Camp, saved me from Clarisse and everyone. You supported me when I came out as gay, and a crossdresser. You supported me when I told you about my mom.” Luke knelt on the bed and dropped his hands so that he could gently pry Percy’s crossed arms open. Once Percy’s arms were uncrossed, he held Percy’s hands. “Percy, husband-of-mine, you’re _still_ supporting me because you’re here. We’re doing this _together._ It isn’t always easy, sometimes we get on each other’s nerves, and being captured would suck, but I like being with you and traveling and having new experiences. I’m handling my shit well because I’ve got you to lean on.” 

After that speech, Percy wanted to cry. He felt a little like a dick but mostly he felt relieved. “You’ve also been to more therapy than I have.” He didn’t like how squeaky his voice was. 

Luke’s smile was tender. “Yeah, I’ve also been to more therapy than you.” He pressed his forehead to Percy’s. “I’m here for you to lean on. We lean on each other.”  
  
  
  


Percy stood beside Luke and the pay phone, wondering how the phone still worked in the winter. Annabeth would probably have been able to tell him. He didn’t want to think about her. 

Luke was on the phone with the mechanic. Luke was very polite to the person on the other line. When he hung up, he said, “It’ll be another few days.” 

Percy sighed. His breath came out in a cloud. It smelled like it wanted to snow today. He squinted up at the sky. The clouds looked heavy. 

“Tired of this place already?” Luke asked, only half teasing. He slung an arm around Percy’s shoulder and pressed his cold nose against the skin behind Percy’s ear. 

Percy yelped. “You’re cold!” He said. Then he ran off, glancing over his shoulder to see if Luke was chasing him. 

Luke was. 

Percy sprinted along the side of the highway, where the snow was lighter. He heard Luke’s footsteps behind him only because Luke _wanted_ him to. Percy veered off the road and onto one of the hiking trails. They weren’t maintained during the winter except by the few brave year rounders who knew the forest well, so it was mad foolish to run along the unfamiliar snowy trails. Running warmed him and he began to sweat but he didn’t dare take off any layers. When the cold air hurt his lungs too much, Percy slowed and stopped. 

Luke caught up to Percy quickly but didn’t slow down. The impact made them fall into a snowbank. They sank several feet into the powdery snow. 

Snow got into Percy’s collar and made him shiver. He squirmed and laughed and tried to escape. All he managed was to wiggle into a sitting position, leaning against a wall of snow. Every inhalation spread cold through his lungs. 

On his hands and knees, Luke looked like a long jungle cat. He pressed forward, face close to Percy’s, breath clouding the air between them. There was a wistful, longing expression in his blue eyes. Luke searched Percy’s face. 

They were invisible here, in the snow canyon they’d made. The little alcove felt warmer with their body heat. Blue shadows dappled over their skin. 

Percy’s heart raced. His gaze flicked between Luke’s red lips and his blue eyes. Was Luke going to kiss him? They were just friends, right? Percy would say that becoming friends was a recent development; before this they were travelling companions and before that they were enemies. Before a resolution could be reached, a snowflake landed in Luke’s hair. Percy tipped his head up to the sky. 

The snow fell quickly after that first flake. What little of the trees that could be seen from their alcove showed that the branches were waving. The wind whipped the snow off the top of their alcove and directly onto them. The temperature dropped quickly. A storm blew in from almost nowhere, burst from the clouds much sooner than Percy had been expecting. 

Luke sprang to his feet and held out a hand for Percy. 

Percy took it. 

Together they ran for their cabin. They did not look before crossing the highway, just darted across. How could the snow fall so quickly that Percy couldn’t even see two feet in front of him? Luke was almost vanished in billowing white. If they weren’t holding hands, Percy would be lost for sure. But Luke knew the way to shelter and he got them there safely. The walk should have been ten minutes if they were being leisurely. It was a thirty minute run and the storm got worse every minute. 

Luke’s voice drifted toward Percy as he told the door to open, not bothering with the key. 

Then they were inside the cabin. It was dark inside without the light of the sun pouring in through their few windows. Snow clung to their clothes and boots. The heater was turned on at a low heat because it had been in the fifties lately but the second that Percy was out of his boots, he scrambled for it and cranked the heater up. He shivered and pulled off his outer layers. They were wet and cold. The chase from earlier had made him sweat and now he was uncomfortably damp even on his inner layers. 

When Percy turned around, he saw that Luke had striped down to his underwear. He was already climbing into bed, piling their blankets over himself. “Percy,” Luke implored. 

“Coming,” Percy answered as he striped down to his underwear. He climbed into bed beside Luke, shivering, wishing that the flannel sheets didn’t feel so cold. He pulled the covers over their heads; a sheet, a comforter, and two blankets. It was heavy but didn’t immediately warm him like he wanted. Percy pressed up against Luke, legs tangled, touching as much skin as he could. 

Luke’s legs felt silky smooth against Percy’s. Luke’s skin was cool against his, but his ears, nose, and fingers were especially cold. They would have to get new gloves for him because the ones he had didn’t seem to be worth a damn. Percy knew this because Luke shoved his hands in Percy’s armpits and stuttered, “You’re s-so warm.” 

“Well you’re freezing!” Percy hissed. Goosebumps rose on his skin and he quivered in waves as the cold spread. He tucked his fists against the warm curve of Luke’s neck. 

Luke hissed but didn’t protest. “That storm came out of nowhere.” 

“It’s been snowing almost every night,” Percy pointed out. 

“Not like this,” Luke said. He nuzzled forward until he could rest his chin on top of Percy’s head. Percy felt his goosebumps rise. “We need to get you a hat.” 

“Y-you didn’t have a hat either.” 

“We’ll both get hats.” 

“Later.” 

“Later,” Luke agreed. 

After that, they fell silent. The heater slowly warmed the room and their combined body heat slowly warmed their den of covers. When Luke’s ears were warm, Percy dropped his hands down to Luke’s chest and felt the thickness of raised scars beneath his knuckles. 

Luke made a noise at the back of his throat. 

“Sorry,” Percy whispered. He went to draw his hands away. 

“I don’t mind,” Luke muttered. 

So Percy pressed his knuckles back to Luke’s chest. He ran them a few inches in either direction, following the scar tissue. It had a unique texture; almost silky and ridged at the same time. Percy’s heart pounded hard. It occurred to him that this was very romantic. Or it would be if they were in love. What would it be like to kiss Luke? Percy left one hand against Luke’s chest and lifted his fingertips to brush against Luke’s cheek. The scars there were only slightly raised and reminded Percy of the texture of roots, which felt appropriate considering that they _looked_ like roots. 

Luke’s breath was steady but his heart pounded against Percy’s palm. He didn’t move so much as an inch, like he thought that it would break the spell. 

Percy stoked Luke’s cheek, lightly traced the scars across his face. He followed one of the scars down to Luke’s wrist and then back up, taking detours to trace the branches from the main trunk of the scar. 

Luke’s heart pounded hard, his chest was hot beneath Percy’s palm. 

Percy wanted to ask what was on Luke’s mind. But in the warm dark of their den, his eyelids grew heavy and Percy fell asleep. 

They slept more than usual that day, more than they had since leaving Arizona. This time it wasn’t depression sleep and so Percy didn’t feel bad about it. When it got hard to breathe, they pushed the covers back and found that their room was pleasantly warm. Luke rolled onto his back and Percy laid his head on Luke’s chest. They slept on. 

The hands on the old fashioned alarm clock moved in a slow but steady circle. Near five pm, they began to rise. First to the bathroom, then to get food. It was lucky that Luke had the foresight to purchase food for their cabin because there was no way the walk to Beckie’s Cafe would be worth it. The snow still came down in a flury. 

Percy snacked on some beef jerky and a granola bar that tasted barely better than cardboard. He washed it down with the orange juice. 

Luke ate his jerky and some of Percy’s pretzels. He used the microwave and half a bottle of water to make a cup of instant coffee. “Shoulda got cream and sugar,” Luke muttered as he sipped the black coffee. He made a face. 

Percy tapped his bare foot over Luke’s. The floor was cool, especially near the doors and windows. “You wanna play cards?” 

“Sure.” 

They played Rummy 500, keeping score in the margins of Percy’s word search book. Luke won a game, Percy won another one. 

Then they lost interest. It was hard to keep demigods cooped up for long. ADHD didn’t always manifest as restlessness but theirs did because they were warriors, soldiers, and it was in their blood to be hyper vigilant and full of energy. 

Percy stood, stretched, bounced on the balls of his feet. 

Luke took a shower. He kept the door open between them because it was a habit now. He was jacking off, Percy knew, because he could hear Luke’s quiet moans and the rhythmic sound of his hand on his cock. 

Percy paced while Luke was in the shower. There wasn’t a lot of pacing room. He took a few steps then turned and took a few more then turned again. 

Luke came out in his flannel pajamas, ones that matched Percy’s. He ruffled Percy’s hair and said, “It’s a little cool in there. I think the pipes are going to freeze soon.” 

Which meant that if Percy wanted to shower, he had better do it quickly. He did, just to give himself something to do. And as silly as it sounded, it was nice to have Luke in the other room where Percy could miss him. After getting out, getting dressed, and grooming himself, Percy rejoined Luke in the main room. It was secretly thrilling and embarrassing to be wearing matching pajamas. 

According to the clock, it was evening. Everything out of their cabin was quiet and dark except for the wind that howled every once in a while. It was soothing. They sat on the bed because there was almost nowhere else to sit in their tiny cabin and the chairs got uncomfortable after a while. There was no television, which meant that they had to entertain each other. 

Luke sat behind Percy and massaged Percy’s shoulders. His hands felt good, working out years worth of tension. 

The massage reminded Percy of something he saw in a dream once. He never told anyone but he spied on Luke while he was dreaming _a lot_. About once a month, when he fell asleep, he fell into Luke’s life, observing completely unnoticed. Except when Kelli was with Luke. “Did you ever have sex with Kelli?” 

Luke’s hands stilled briefly, before continuing the massage. His touch was lighter now. “What makes you ask that?” Luke asked. His tone of voice was deceptively calm. 

Percy paused for a moment. That wasn’t what he’d expected. He thought Luke would bust out a _’well I’m gay, so obviously not.’_ “I saw her try to give you a shoulder massage once and it seemed like…maybe…” Percy’s voice got smaller as he continued until he trailed off. 

He felt Luke’s sigh against the back of his neck. “Kelli is a sex demon and it’s partially her looks that help her reel in victims. But it’s mostly pheromones. You met her. How did she make you feel?” 

Right now it felt like there was a hand clenching Percy’s stomach. He shouldn’t have asked. It was stupid to ask. He shouldn’t have asked. “She made me want her.” 

Luke hummed agreement. “The more I was around her, the less her pheromones worked on me. They don’t usually keep their victims alive long.” 

Percy twisted around to look Luke in the eye. “I’m sorry for asking.” 

Luke gave a half shrug. He gently turned Percy’s head forward again. His hands dropped down to Percy’s shoulder blades. “I don’t mind if you ask.” 

Percy’s eyelids slid half closed in bliss. He really needed a massage. Maybe they would be able to find a spa and spend a day there being pampered. He doubted there would be one in the middle of the national forest but maybe they could drive into a city once Darling was fixed. He let out a content sigh. 

“Yeah?” Luke asked, amusement lacing his voice. 

Percy hummed agreement. 

After a long few minutes, during which Luke worked his way down to the small of Percy’s back and had him doubled over, Luke said, “You know that massages usually don’t lead to sex, right?” 

Percy shook his head. The tips of his ears warmed a little. “I don’t have a lot of experiences with massages. Like at all.” Luke thumbs brushed over the spot where Percy’s Achilles Heel used to be and he shivered. “Did you ever figure it out?” 

“Figure what out?” Luke asked. 

“Where my Achilles Heel was.” 

There was a long moment of silence then Luke asked, “Am I close?” 

Percy hummed agreement. “You always seem to find it.” He sat up and twisted so that he could look at Luke’s face. “In hindsight, I chose a dumb spot.” 

Luke pressed both thumbs into a small spot at the center of the small of Percy’s back. The way it made Percy shiver, and his eyes widen, answered the unspoken question. Luke lessened the pressure but didn’t move his hands away. “That is a dumb spot.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Percy’s forehead. “Your first battle and Ethan almost stabbed you in it.” 

“Yeah. Annabeth took the dagger for me.” Percy frowned at the memory. The dagger had been poisoned but there was no real fear that she wouldn’t make it. Demigods so rarely died of stabbings that even with poison, it didn’t seem like a huge deal. Looking back on it, Percy thought that he reacted way too over the top. They’ve been through worse. 

“Did she know?” Luke asked. 

Percy shook his head. “Not until after.” His frown deepened and he turned the rest of himself around so that he and Luke were sitting facing each other. “She didn’t have a choice.” 

Luke’s brow knit. “What do you mean she didn’t have a choice?” 

Percy sighed. He looked out the window, suddenly unwilling to look Luke in the eye. Once upon a time, Luke had had feelings for Annabeth. Not the romantic type like Percy had thought, but he still held her in high regard. “When we were thirteen, Chiron made her vow on the River Styx that she would try to keep me out of danger.” 

Luke’s eyes widened. His hands twitched toward his side, like he wanted to draw a blade. That little action reminded Percy that Luke was always the type to physically work out his anger. “Why would he do that?” 

Percy shrugged. “I don’t know. But that’s how I know that she won’t stop hunting me. Her life is tied to mine and if I die, Annabeth dies.” 

“She’ll go to the fields of punishment,” Luke said grimly. “If your death was preventable. Chiron really fucked her over.” He fell back against the mattress. A heartbeat later, Luke rolled to his feet and began pacing. 

An apology was on the tip of Percy’s tongue but he didn’t think that Luke would appreciate it. He blamed Chiron and Percy’s self-deprecation would only add to his irritation. 

Luke paced for a while but it didn’t appear to satisfy him anymore than it had Percy. The cabin was too small for a good pace. Eventually he came to stand in front of Percy. “Can I touch you there again?” He asked. 

Percy’s heart skipped a beat. Oh, his body did strange things around Luke. He nodded and sat so that his legs were dangling over the edge of the bed, knees touching Luke’s knees. His spine was embarrassingly straight and rigid, his hands in his lap because he didn’t know what else to do with them. 

Luke had to lean down, perched on the edge of the bed and half over Percy, to slide his hands along the raised ridges of Percy’s spine and to the dip at the small of his back. “You can still feel it, can’t you? Like someone walking over your grave.” 

Percy nodded again. His mouth was dry. His bones trembled. He was sure that Luke could feel it. 

“I thought you were tensing up because my hands were so close to your ass,” Luke admitted. “And you thought I was going to grope you.” 

That made a lot of sense from the outside. “It didn’t really cross my mind,” Percy admitted. He wanted to do something with his hands but the only thing he could think was to place them on Luke’s hips and _that_ was taking things too far. Especially when Percy already wanted to kiss Luke. 

“I’m glad you don’t think that lowly of me,” Luke said seriously. Luke’s hands shifted to his hips and suddenly they were spinning, rolling over. He would have had a tough time of it if Percy had been aware of what was going to happen but as it was, Percy was caught by surprise. Somehow they wound up chest to chest, with Luke on the bottom. Luke’s hands were still at the small of Percy’s back, riding up the back of his shirt to touch bare skin. This position appeared far more comfortable for him. 

Percy stiffened in surprise but the position wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. They’d been here before, though not very often. An irrational fear of crushing Luke beneath his weight rolled through Percy. Then he remembered that he’d lost so much weight recently and hadn’t yet gained most of it back. “You could have asked first,” he complained without heat. 

“I’m sorry. Next time I’ll ask first.” Luke shook his head, distracted. “I have a scar over mine.” 

“Over your what?” Percy asked a heartbeat before he realized. “Your Achilles heel?” 

Luke nodded. 

“Is it…” Percy tried again. “Can I touch it?” At Luke’s nod of consent, Percy lifted his torso enough to slip a hand up Luke’s pajama shirt. He felt the scars he had earlier, then came to Luke’s left armpit. There was a small round scar the size of a quarter. It would be hard to hit and hard to see. 

Luke’s eyes widened when Percy touched it. His breath caught. “Oh,” he whispered. His heart beat hard enough to be felt through their shirts. 

Percy’s heart pounded to match the tempo of Luke’s. “I’m surprised you can feel it.” 

“I have feeling in all of my scars,” Luke replied. “It’s not usually bad. But if it gets too hot or cold suddenly or the pressure changes, they hurt.” 

It sounded like an awful deal to Percy but even the few years that he had the scar on his palm, he had noticed that too. He familiarized himself with the knife scar for a few moments longer, until Luke pulled his hand away. 

“Sorry,” Luke muttered. His eyes were closed and he took steadying breaths. Whatever memories the scar brought, Percy was pretty sure weren’t the reason Luke made him stop touching it. He could feel Luke’s erection pushing against his hip. 

“Sorry,” Percy echoed. He’d never felt another boy’s erection. Well. Luke was a man, not a boy, but it still stood. Even after six months of close proximity and spending the tail end of that sharing a bed, Percy never woke up with Luke’s erection pressed against his ass, which is what he had been led to believe would happen when sharing a bed with a man. He held still and wondered if he should just roll off of Luke completely. “It’s quiet here,” Percy said when the silence got to be too much. 

“No radio. No tv,” Luke pointed out. His eyes were open to slits. 

“Would you sing for us?” 

“For you, you mean?” Luke teased. He had a faint, fond smile on his face. “Do I look like a songbird to you?” 

Percy smiled back. Jokes were decidedly unsexy so maybe it would make Luke’s erection go away and their marriage would stay unconsummated. “I’ve never heard of a songbird singing country. Maybe a jukebox.” 

But Luke shook his head. “Jukeboxes take requests. I do not. You’ll get whatever I'm in the mood to sing.” 

“You don’t have to sing if you don’t want to,” Percy said. He tucked a white curl behind Luke’s ear. “Especially since I’m laying on you.” 

“I’m happy to sing for you, whether you’re laying on me or not.” Luke’s expression was so earnest and tender that Percy had to look away. He caressed Percy’s cheek. “Making you happy makes me happy.” 

“Don’t tease, Luke,” Percy said because no one had ever said something so cheesy and romantic and it must have been another joke. 

“I ain’t teasing you, Percy. I’ve never been happier than I am with you.” 

Percy’s chest felt tight like there was a band around it and he also felt like his heart was going to burst with happiness. It was a peculiar feeling and he was quite sure that he did not like it. Probably. He swallowed. “What about the bad times? It hasn’t all been fun and easy.” 

“No,” Luke agreed. “It hasn’t all been fun and games. But I’m not just here for a good time. I had good times in Greece and Europe. Being with you makes me happy because I feel…” Luke pursed his lips as he searched for a word. “Understood and known. Or, at least you’re making an effort and that makes me happy.” 

Percy had never had someone say anything quite like that to him before and it made him emotional. He tucked his face against Luke’s neck and muttered, “I’m happy I married you.” Because that was the closest he could come to expressing the feeling he got when he was around Luke. 

After that confession of feelings all that was left was to feign sleep and so Luke reached over and turned the light off. Then Luke’s hands clasped over the small of Percy’s back and he gave a satisfied hum. The hum turned into more humming and then Luke started singing, his voice only a little warped by Percy’s weight on his chest. 

“Oh it’s a beautiful thing / don’t think I can keep it all in / I’ve just gotta let you know / what it is that won’t let me go / it’s your love / it just does something to me / it sends a shock right through me / I can’t get enough / and if you wonder / about the spell I’m under / oh, it’s your love / better than I was / more than I am / and all of this happened / by taking your hand / and who I am now / is who I wanted to be / and now that we’re together / I’m stronger than ever, I’m happy and free.”  
  
  
  


“What are you doing?” Percy asked. The storm had blown away and there was another foot of snow on the ground. The two of them were so restless that even though the snow came up to their hips, they forced their way through it. They’d gone to the lodge to request shovels and spent the morning shoveling paths. 

Now it was afternoon and Luke threw aside his shovel. He moved the snow around with his gloved hands - they bought new gloves in the country store that actually kept his hands warm - and seemed possessed to make...something. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m making a snow dog.” 

“Oh, of course,” Percy said as he leaned against his shovel. He watched Luke for a few moments then set down his shovel and moved a few feet away. He began to build a snowman, rolling the snow into a large ball. “That’s a big dog.” 

“Well it isn’t life sized,” Luke admitted. He pulled a glove off with his teeth and quickly carved out the facial features. When he was done, Luke shook the water off his hand and slipped it back into the glove. “It’s a Hellhound.” 

Percy hummed and leaned back on his heels to view it again. “I see you’re going for the classic look,” he noted. 

Luke raised an eyebrow. “The classic look? This is what they look like. I’ve spent enough time around them.” 

Percy grimaced at the reminder. He couldn’t really fault Luke when he had a pet Hellhound. “Mrs. O’Leary looks like a poodle when the Mist gets to her.” 

Luke narrowed his eyes and thought and then widened them. “That beast is _yours_?” 

Percy discreetly made a snowball. “She is not a beast.” 

“She’s the biggest damn Hellhound to ever exist. I thought she was Nico’s steed or something. He’s small enough and she’s big enough for it.” 

Percy tossed the snowball at Luke, hitting him in the shoulder. 

The snowball exploded, most of it going in Luke’s face. For a moment they just looked at each other. Then Luke took a chunk out of his snow dog and threw it at Percy. 

Percy ducked his head just barely quick enough to avoid getting a snowball to the face. It exploded on the top of his head instead, snow trickling down the back of his collar and into his shirt. 

This, of course, started an all out war. It was brutal to say the least, snowballs flying and hitting more than missing. There were no tricks - no rocks or sticks or ice in the centers - but the face wasn’t off limits. In a matter of twenty minutes, they were both covered in snow and shivering as a great deal had worked its way under their clothes. Tramping through the deep snow was exhausting and they flopped down beside each other, panting. 

“I could use a cider,” Luke said between breaths. 

“And something hot to eat. I’m tired of granola bars,” Percy agreed. 

“It’s only been a day.” Luke laughed. “My poor baby. Let’s get some real food into you.” 

Percy rose first, holding out his hand to help Luke up. 

Luke managed to pull off Percy’s glove and they burst into breathless laughter. He took Percy’s bare hand and once he was on his feet, helped Percy to get the glove back on. “I hope Beckies is open.” 

“The lodge was open,” Percy pointed out. They headed toward the highway. Ashy gray snow was piled up three feet high on both sides, looking absolutely disgusting. There was a small break for going from one side to the other and they crossed carefully because of the ice glittering on the asphalt. In front of Beckies, Percy tugged Luke to a stop and brushed the ice crystals from his hair. They stomped and brushed off as much snow as possible. Then they went inside for hot food and hot drinks. 

After Beckies, it was back to the lodge to return the shovels. The elderly woman who owned the resort seemed to like them now that she knew they weren’t stingy with money and were willing to do some work for free. “You two can go upstairs to the fireside library if you’d like. At least until other guests come to rent the rooms,” she said. “Just hang your wet things in the bathroom” 

So they made their way upstairs and hung their wet outer layers in the bathroom. Luke made a beeline for the bookshelves and studied the titles intensely. 

Percy walked around the room, noting the pool table and the foosball table. He played a game of pool against himself, making up the rules because he had never played before. When he got bored, he put the sticks and the balls back how he found them and looked over to Luke. 

Luke sat on a white pleather couch beside the fireplace, his legs tucked up close to his body and a book resting on his knees. He looked comfortable and relaxed in a way that Percy never saw him before their retirement. 

Percy wanted very much to kiss him. There were many friends that Percy wanted to kiss at one time or another but didn’t, so this didn’t strike him as an odd desire. Besides all that, they were married. Even if it was a marriage of convenience. Maybe this sort of thing just happened once you were married to a person. Though he couldn’t remember his mother ever wanting to kiss Smelly Gabe. 

Percy found his way to Luke and sat beside him on the couch. “Whatcha reading?” He asked. 

It was a few minutes before Luke stopped reading and tore his eyes away from the pages long enough to answer, “It’s about the weird stuff that happens around Crater Lake.” 

“Oh,” Percy said. Mortals did that sometimes, wrote about divine places and speculated. Percy used to think it was just dumb but now he knew better. Mortals were smarter than anyone gave them credit for. Sensing that his husband was going to be engrossed for a while, he settled in comfortably tucked against Luke’s side. Percy knew the drill, thanks to Annabeth. Although Annabeth never read anything that wasn’t written by either an architect or demigod; preferably both. In any case, he knew that he should be silent and still because reading people hated being interrupted by voices and excessive movement and they were liable to punch him. 

“I could read some for you. It’s really interesting,” Luke offered. 

Percy hid his surprise. “Sure,” he said. Once Darling was fixed, Percy had no intentions of coming back to this area even though they were having a good time at the resort. But he liked the idea of being involved with something that interested Luke. 

So Luke read aloud, slowly and not nearly as pretty as his singing was. He was dyslexic and never set foot in school and stumbled over some of his words. But they got through stories of cryptids, of people committing suicide, of mysterious disappearances, of a helicopter pilot nosediving into the lake and how he’d probably thought he was going up but the reflective lake water confused him. There were some facts mixed into stories and legends. The lake was seven thousand years old. 

“So it’s an old god,” Percy decided. He flinched, waiting for the reprimand for interrupting. 

Luke only nodded agreement. “Old and _very_ hungry.” They met each other’s gaze over the book. Then Luke dropped his and said, “Should I read a few more?” 

Percy settled once more, resting his cheek against Luke’s bicep. “We might as well know what other horrors we escaped.” He peeked at Luke’s face to see that Luke was smiling. 

Later, as they picked their way across the slippery path toward their cabin, Percy asked, “Do you think it just smells like the cold and stone?” 

“Do I think what?” Luke asked. 

“The god at Crater Lake. Do you think it smells like cold and stone?” Percy repeated. 

“Oh. Could be. The sun god smells like sunshine,” Luke said thoughtfully. Sunshine didn’t normally have what one would call a definitive smell but if you were around Apollo and his children for any length of time their scent would immediately make you think of sunny places. 

“So do all of his kids,” Percy noted. He wondered what kind of kids the lake god would have. What powers would they have when their parent was like that? “But they also smell like themselves.” 

Luke unlocked their cabin. “It could be like the wisdom goddess. Her kids only smell like her old book scent and one random office supply of her choosing.” 

Percy stopped on the porch, head cocked. “Annabeth doesn’t smell like that. I mean, she does smell like old books and freshly sharpened pencils but she also smells like mountain laurel.” 

Luke froze where he was taking off his boots. He very deliberately didn’t look at Percy. “The love goddesses kids smell like mountain laurel,” he said finally. One boot came off. 

Percy didn’t move. “I know. But so does Annabeth.” 

Luke didn’t reply and he didn’t look at Percy. The other boot _thunked_ on the floor. 

“Luke,” Percy said sharply. 

“What?” 

“Why does she smell like that?” 

Luke sighed. “She could be cheating on you with someone from the Aphrodite cabin. But it takes a long time for scents to mix like that.” For the two of them, it took five months of constant contact and closeness for the scents to mix. Percy wasn’t sure they would ever unmix. “You don’t smell like her anymore, by the way. But her scent wasn’t ever very strong on you.” Luke unzipped his jacket even though Percy stood with the door open, letting the heat out. 

Percy didn’t know how to feel about that nugget of knowledge. Relieved, mostly, but also a little bit sad. “She didn’t cheat on me,” he said, trying to sound sure of it. 

“I don’t think she did either,” Luke admitted. The jacket came off and was hung on the back of a chair. “She didn’t used to smell like mountain laurel. It wasn’t until you came back from your first quest that her scent changed.” 

It felt like a wave of icy cold water doused Percy from his head to his toes. He began to shake as a memory replayed itself in his head. 

_“No love magic for you!”_

Luke caught sight of his face and stood in front of Percy in a heartbeat. The snow soaked through his stocking feet. “What? Are you okay?” 

“We found...we found a scarf,” Percy whispered. “It smelled like mountain laurel and it glimmered like iridescence.” He tried to think of where she could have hidden it all these years. The whole scarf was too big to hide. What did she do with it? “It belonged to the love goddess.” Where did she hide it? Percy had found most of it in the attic of the Big House. It had looked normal to him but Annabeth was a skilled weaver. She would be able to cut away a small piece and make it look like it never happened. 

“Oh no,” Luke breathed. His eyes were wide as he came to the same conclusions that Percy had. 

Percy’s eyelids slid closed as he tried to remember. Where could she have hidden it? He thought of the few times that they had sex. The first time, in his mom’s empty apartment while Sally was on a date with Paul. Annabeth had climbed the fire escape wearing her invisibility cap and slipped into his room like a wraith in the night. Her clothes had come off, left on his bedroom floor as she made her way from the window to his bed. Everything except for - “She’s got a piece tied onto her Camp Half-Blood necklace.” Percy opened his eyes. 

Luke was looking at him with blue eyes full of concern. There was a sympathetic understanding there too, that Percy didn’t want to think about too much. It was funny that Annabeth and Kelli both used ‘love’ magic to get what they wanted out of Luke and Percy. “Come inside, Percy,” Luke said gently. 

Percy almost stepped on Luke’s toes going inside. When the door was shut behind him, he said “I wondered why I didn’t miss her.” No, Percy didn’t really miss Annabeth at all. In fact, the thought of her terrified him. Even now that it would be much, much harder for her to find them. 

Luke unzipped Percy’s jacket and hung it over the other chair. He coaxed Percy to lift his feet so that he could tug his boots off. Then he stood up and rubbed his cheek against Percy’s cheek. 

Percy made a surprised noise in his throat. He realized suddenly that he’d just been standing there dripping snow onto the floor. “Sorry. Thank you.” He rubbed his cheek against Luke’s and breathed in the scent of ocean salt and hot candle wax. The important thing, he reflected, was that they no longer smelled like other people or places.  
  
  
  


Five days was the longest that Percy and Luke ever stayed in one place during the past six months. Percy thought about what Luke had said their first day all the time and how Luke had cried in relief that Percy wasn’t paranoid like before. To avoid backsliding or worrying Luke, Percy tried not to let his restlessness show. This time at least it wasn’t fear of being found; it was that he now had the travel bug and it was a bug that was insistent. 

They bought a map of Oregon from the country store and this time Percy poured over it with Luke. He suspected that Luke gleaned more information from the map than Percy did. That didn’t stop Percy from suggesting places to go based on nothing more than their names. 

“We’re going to wind up in every city and town in Oregon,” Luke said. 

“So?” Percy retorted. 

Luke booped Percy’s nose and grinned. 

Percy snapped his teeth, pretending to bite but not getting anywhere near the offending finger. 

Luke laughed and gently papped the top of Percy’s head. 

Percy knew an invitation to play when he saw one. He lunged at Luke. 

Luke was off the bed in a heartbeat. He snagged his boots and was out the cabin door without his coat. 

Percy followed, barely taking the time to pull his boots on. He chased Luke along the path from their cabin to the lodge, then along the side of the highway. Running kept him warm, especially since he had to push himself hard to keep up with Luke. 

Luke laughed and bounded along like a deer. When he slowed it was only to tease Percy. They ran a mile before Luke allowed himself to be caught. 

Percy threw his arms around Luke’s neck and they tumbled back into the snow. “You run too fast.” 

Luke’s blue eyes glittered with amusement. “You run too slow.” 

They lay in the snow until Luke shivered, then Percy helped him up. They jogged back to their cabin. 

When they reached it, Luke flopped onto the bed and kicked his boots off. He shoved the map of Oregon onto the floor on the other side of the bed. “Look at this for me,” he said as he pulled his sweater and shirt over his head. 

Percy closed the door and set their boots up nicely on the rubber mat beside it. Then he turned to look at Luke. There was a darkening bruise forming on Luke’s rib cage. “What’s that from?” 

“I fell on a rock,” Luke said. He twisted to look but gave up after a few contortions. 

“Sorry,” Percy apologized. He ducked his head to kiss the bruise before he could talk himself out of it. “Better?” 

Luke smiled like a child on Christmas. “Yes. Thank you.” 

Percy rolled his eyes to feign indifference. He sat at the table and opened his word search book. The tip of his pen was gnawed on but was surprisingly resilient against his teeth. 

A moment later, Luke draped himself against Percy’s back and pressed their cheeks together. “Hmm…” he was still grinning. “You know, I might not be able to _see_ you blush but I can _feel_ how hot your face gets.” 

“Do you enjoy being a brat?” Percy countered. To his horror, his face grew even warmer. He tried to focus on his word search but it was impossible. 

“Yes,” Luke said impishly. 

Percy picked up one of Luke’s paperback novels at random and _almost_ smacked him in the face with it. “You're very distracting. Be a good boy and occupy yourself.” Percy struggled to keep a straight face. 

Luke took the book. He planted a quick kiss on Percy’s cheek before retreating to the bed. 

Percy resisted the urge to rub his cheek where Luke had kissed him. He resisted the urge to turn around and look at Luke. And he resisted the urge to join Luke on the bed. They didn’t need to spend every second within two feet of each other. Instead, Percy focused on getting one page of his word search done and then he would reward himself by bothering Luke.  
  
  
  


“You’d think the pay phone would eventually catch on to the fact that you aren’t paying it for its services,” Percy commented as Luke hung up the phone. He was busy focusing on an icicle that hung from the roof of Beckie’s Cafe, trying to convince the frozen water that it wanted to melt. He was not making much progress. 

They were full of pecan pie for breakfast. The other day, Percy found a scale in the guest bathroom at the lodge and was pleased to see that he’d put on a few pounds. Still not as much as he’d lost, but it was a start. 

Luke shushed him. “Don’t let the pay phone hear you.” He led the way back into the woods toward the creek. “Mechanic said that we’ll be getting Darling back tomorrow provided the weather holds.” His face tipped toward the sky. 

There was snow on the way again, but it didn’t feel quite as immediate as it did when the blizzard blew in a few days ago. There was little risk that they would be caught in it on their walk. Despite the building storm, it was a lovely day out. The air was cold and clean, the forest looked picturesque like a postcard. 

“That’s good. I’m ready to move on,” Percy said. The voices of the fish became quieter as the water got colder. Now they were a sleepy murmur, still complaining about the cold. It made Percy yawn. 

“Me too,” Luke said. “Not to say that I haven’t enjoyed our time here,” he added quickly. “And our cozy little cabin.” 

“Emphasis on little,” Percy muttered. At least in their usual hotel rooms, there was room to pace ten feet before having to turn around. 

“The quiet is nice,” Luke said. The forest was very quiet aside from the few birds that stayed during the winter and their own footsteps. “But I kind of miss the tv.” 

“Me too,” Percy agreed. The quiet made his ears ring and he was uncomfortably aware of the sounds his body made that were normally covered up by electronics and other people. Like how he could hear his arms brushing against his sides and his blood rushing and every single breath he took and his stomach gurgling as it digested the pie. 

They fell silent as they walked, each lost in their own thoughts. It was a comfortable silence between them. When they got thirsty, they silently made the decision to turn around and go back the way they’d come. 

At the cabin, they drank some water. Just because it was cold, that didn’t mean you could go without water. Even Percy knew better than to try and melt the snow in his mouth for water. It would chill his core temperature too much. Once his thirst was satiated, Percy got in the shower. He would not miss the tiny box that was their shower and he was looking forward to getting a nice hotel room. 

When Percy was done, Luke got to his feet with his bundle of pajamas. He paused on his way into the bathroom to nuzzle Percy, fierce and intense, though briefly. The door stayed open as per usual, which meant that Percy could again hear Luke getting himself off. 

Some anxiety returned to Percy. They were fairly isolated here but when they got to the cities, Luke would likely be able to sniff out a male demigod to hook up with. The idea caused a pang in Percy’s chest. He couldn’t satisfy Luke - and Luke never even asked if Percy would have sex with him - and that hurt. It made him feel broken and worthless, on top of the other issues that Percy already had. 

When he got out of the bathroom, Luke found Percy laying in the middle of the bed. Something flashed across his face too fast for Percy to read. He climbed into bed and settled himself beside Percy on his stomach. 

Percy rolled onto his side, back to Luke. He closed his eyes. The sooner they went to sleep, the sooner tomorrow would come.  
  
  
  


Eating at Beckie’s Cafe held a bit of bittersweetness. This would be the last time, as neither of them intended to return to this part of the Oregon forest. The owner of Beckie’s Cafe - presumably Beckie but Percy had never caught her name - came up to their table with an official looking envelope. “This is for you boys. The new postman delivered it this morning. I’ve got no idea how he knew you were here.” 

Inside of the envelope were their documents with their new legal name on them. They were now official. “Well, Mr. Jastellan, it appears we are official and legal,” Luke said in a fake posh accent. 

Percy did his best to copy it. The accent did not come naturally to him. “It would appear that way, Mr. Jastellan.” 

Back in the cabin, they cleaned out their trash and packed everything they’d purchased into a tote bag that was also purchased from the country store/gift shop. 

Once everything was in tip top shape, the boys walked to the office to return the key that they had never actually used. “If you find anything amiss, please feel free to charge it to my card,” Luke said graciously, barely able to hide his smirk. 

The elderly woman narrowed her eyes. “Not to worry, I will do exactly that,” she promised. 

They bought some drinks and waited outside for their ride back into town. Bobby and Lily would be there to collect them soon. Sure enough, they were and Percy and Luke were squeezing themselves into the back seat of the Jeep. 

Percy was not seized with the urge to slide Luke’s hand into his pants this time, for which he was equally grateful and annoyed. 

“I hope you two had a good stay. Did you rate them well?” Bobby asked. 

“We don’t have phones,” Percy said. 

Bobby lent them his cell phone so that they could properly rate Crater Lake, Union Creek Resort, and Beckie’s Cafe. Percy took the phone and quickly typed out positive reviews for all of them, giving them five stars. Then he handed the phone back to Bobby. 

When they finally saw Darling again, she looked as good as they’d left her. Her engine started immediately and Percy was delighted to be behind the wheel again. He watched as Luke paid for the repairs and accepted paperwork detailing what had been done. 

Then Luke was sliding into the passenger seat. His grin warped the scars on his face. “So where are we going next?” 

“I was thinking of the southwestern corner of Oregon. There’s the coast and I think there are some redwoods.” Percy glanced at Luke as he drove down the road. “I wanna see the redwood trees. We don’t have to go into California. And I miss the ocean. Not to go _in_ it, just to...see it again.” 

Luke’s smile softened. “That sounds good,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when Rick wrote Blackjack as a mare and then in the next book decided that Blackjack was a stallion? I don't agree with that decision. Now you know Blackjack's origin story. 
> 
> Also, listen, I've been to Crater Lake, OR, and that place is definitely breathtakingly gorgeous but also cursed as all hell. Reading about the history, the myths, and the deaths surrounding Crater Lake makes for a good time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone flirts with Luke. Percy breaks his ankle. They sort of celebrate the winter solstice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are mentions of rape in this chapter. It isn't explicit or described in any detail. 
> 
> Songs Luke Sings: [Break Down Here by Julie Roberts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrG1NUZa5Bs).

### "Is this the generation of love? Hot blood, hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of vipers?" — William Shakespeare 

It was cold on the beach and endlessly cloudy as though Apollo had been offended by the entire state of Oregon and refused to show here. The waves were tall and crashed against the shore as though angry. Almost no one else was on the beach in their area except for some surfers in the distance. 

Percy buried his feet in the sand where the sand was cold with saltwater. He refused to get in more than that. 

Luke wandered up and down the beach, always keeping Percy in his sights. He didn’t touch the water either. Perhaps he worried about Poseidon finding them somehow. Occasionally he picked something up and brought it back to Percy; a bit of sea glass or a shell or an interesting feather, even a pretty rock. 

The surfers returned to the shore. They laughed and talked to each other. After a while, one of them ran over to Percy and Luke. “My brother thinks you’re hot,” the surfer said. She had brown eyes that sparkled with mischief and long brown hair down to her butt. 

Luke’s eyes moved past her to the aforementioned brother. A look of longing crossed his features. It was there and gone again in a moment. “I’m married,” Luke said, holding up his left hand. 

Luke’s expression told Percy two things: one, the boy (and probably his sister) were demigods; two, Luke was craving the sexual company of another person. 

Percy said nothing. 

The girl shrugged and ran back to her brother. 

Percy and Luke left shortly after that.   
  
  
  


The redwoods on the Oregon side of the border were impressive. Just being around them was cool. The mists that rolled in off the ocean lended an unearthly feeling to the redwoods. It was, thankfully, not the same unearthly feeling from Crater Lake. Neither of them wanted to be stuck in one place against their will again, no matter how good a time they had. Clumps of ferns grew along the path. 

“They’re so tall!” Percy exclaimed. He stood in front of one that was so huge he couldn’t begin to wrap his arms around its trunk. He had to tip his head all the way back and shade his eyes just to look up at the branches. 

“Pictures don’t really do the scale justice,” Luke agreed. His eyes were wide with awe. “I bet it would be fun to live in them.” 

“A treehouse?” Percy asked with a grin. 

Luke nodded, smiling back. “Do you think we could climb them?” 

Percy shrugged. “Are we allowed?” 

“When has _allowed_ stopped us from doing anything?” Luke countered. 

“Touche,” Percy said. Despite their talk of climbing the massive trees, the two of them stayed firmly on the ground. At least for the moment. 

The only thing to do in the redwood forest was to hike. So hike they did. The few other tourists they came across had cameras and wore heavy jackets. Luke and Percy also wore heavy coats because the winds that blew in off the ocean were wicked cold. 

“Do you think we should get a camera?” Luke asked as they passed a group of Japanese tourists, all armed with cameras. He was sweating from the exertion of turning his glamor on and off. From his jacket pocket, Luke took a water bottle and paused to drink it. 

Percy took a small sip of his own water. The wind made his mouth dry. “I don’t know,” Percy said. He couldn’t help but remember how Nico had found them, because someone recorded them. On the other hand, these photos would be just for them. They wouldn’t upload them online. And it would be nice to have more than one photograph of the two of them together. Their wedding photo was currently the only one they had and it was tucked away between the pages of _American Gods._ “It might be nice to have more pictures.” 

Despite how tired keeping his glamour up made him, Luke couldn’t resist the temptation of climbing the trees. Not all of them were vertical, some had fallen and were horizontal across the path. Some of them just grew wonky. Luke climbed them, running across their trunks and doing flips back to solid ground. 

It looked like fun. And it had been so long since Percy had a real challenge or tested himself on the rockwall at Camp. Soon enough, Percy took his turn climbing and running across the trunks and branches. Was it illegal? Almost definitely. There were nature advocates - like Grover, probably - who were rolling in agony over Percy and Luke playing on the redwoods. If these trees had nature spirits in them, they stayed hidden. It was really the small miracles that had to be appreciated. 

Luke crouched on a branch that stretched from one side of the path to the other. He looked up at the trees high above. “I bet we can walk across the branches up there and never need to come down.” 

Percy followed his gaze. The branches of the trees looked thick around even from this far down and most of them touched. “Alright,” Percy said. “You’re on.” He was pleased to find that he still had a good deal of strength in his arms - maybe from shovelling all of that snow - so hauling himself up the trunk of a nearby redwood was easy. The spaces in the bark seemed to be made for hand and toe holds. When they finally got to the first of the really thick branches, Percy looked down. He was used to being up high and so the height didn’t bother him. “Thalia would hate this,” he commented with a laugh. 

A pained expression crossed Luke’s face before he masked it. “Yeah, she sure would.” 

Percy cocked his head as he watched tourists passing beneath them. He was confident that either they wouldn’t look up and see the demigods or that Luke would hide them. “Did she have some traumatizing thing happen to her?” 

“Um,” Luke said. “Do you mean something related to heights or in general?” 

“Heights,” Percy clarified. “Nico was trapped in a bronze jar and now he’s afraid of dark, enclosed spaces. I almost died in a muskeg in Alaska and now I’m afraid of suffocation. I’ve almost drowned a few times because of it.” 

“What’s a muskeg?” Luke asked. 

“Like a swamp or bog.” 

“I don’t know if something happened to Thalia. She...liked to keep information to herself.” 

Percy walked along the branch and into the next tree. “Yeah, I noticed that. I kind of thought she would be different with you.” 

“Nope. If she could keep something a secret, she’d do it. It took her three years before she told me that our meeting wasn’t an accident and she didn’t _want_ to tell me but I was asking so many questions about the stupid magic goat we were following that she threw me a bone to shut me up.” Luke’s face was downcast, eyes on the branch beneath his feet. 

“It sounds like you weren’t very close,” Percy ventured. Luke used to lose his temper when Percy talked about Thalia and this was not the place for a fight. 

Luke sighed. “No, we weren’t. I wanted to be. I tried to be. But Thalia was so closed off. She sort of thawed when we adopted Annabeth but that was only for a few weeks.” He laughed, bitter and cold. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. I didn’t believe it until she killed me.” 

A chill went down Percy’s spine at that hurt laughter but all in all Luke took it well. He ventured one more observation, “She seemed really eager to kill you.” 

Another, more dramatic sigh. “I noticed.” Luke stopped walking and closed his eyes. Percy remembered the wounded animal noise that Luke had made when he had to fight Thalia, like he’d been reduced to something less than human because she didn’t love him. “She’s angry that she stayed with me instead of joining the Hunters. Zoe tried so hard to convince Thalia to join. Promised that she wouldn’t have periods, that she’d never get her heart broken, that she would stay young and beautiful and powerful forever. All that jazz.” Luke kept walking, making hand gestures. 

“No periods is part of their pitch?” Percy asked, lips quirking despite himself. Annabeth was more of a nightmare than usual on her periods and she was liable to hit Percy more often. And scream in his face. Gods, did Annabeth love to scream in his face. It was always just something she chalked up to the testosterone from her periods. Percy was sure that his testosterone levels were normal and he’d never felt the need to scream in Annabeth’s face or hit her. 

Luke snorted. “It’s a good deal,” he admitted. “Thalia said no. Partially because she would have had to give me up, but also because she thought Annabeth was too young to agree to something like that and if Thalia went somewhere, Annabeth would want to go too. Annabeth didn’t even know what sex or periods or any of that was. Maybe she wanted a family and lover for herself. Thalia didn’t want to take that from her.” 

Percy said nothing. He wished that Thalia had made other choices. 

Luke continued, “A week later, Thalia got her first period and that was…” he laughed. “A bloody disaster. Not to be dramatic.” 

“Why?” 

“Because she woke up with her sleeping bag and pajama pants soaked with blood. Annabeth thought that Thalia was dying and didn’t understand why she wouldn’t take ambrosia. I had to go out on a supply run. Tampons, ibuprofen, new pajamas, a new sleeping bag, one of those heat packs that you crack to activate. By the time I got back, Annabeth was convinced that it was my fault Thalia was dying.” Luke rolled his eyes. He pulled himself onto a branch above the one he’d been walking on and now walked above Percy. “That was the first time I had to have the period talk with someone. I think I did a lousy job. I didn’t know much about it so Thalia filled in the blanks but she was so...negative about it that I thought Annabeth would run away to join the Hunters before she hit puberty.” 

Percy joined him on the higher branch. “I wish she had.” 

“Then she would be immortal,” Luke pointed out. 

Now that was a terrifying thought. “Do you think it’s weird that the Hunters haven’t found us?” 

Luke shook his head. “Dad can keep us hidden from the gods and that includes the Hunters, since they’re under the moon goddesses employment.” 

“Don’t get upset, but I like your dad,” Percy said. He remembered Hermes getting him out of quite a few bad situations and saving him from Annabeth. 

“He likes you,” Luke said with a shrug. “I haven’t met your dad, and no offense, but I’d rather go the rest of my life without meeting him.” 

“That’s fair,” Percy acknowledged. “He’s intimidating.” 

“That’s putting it mildly,” Luke muttered. 

Out of nowhere, a squirrel ran across the branch they were on. It darted around Luke but wove between Percy’s feet. The squirrel knocked Percy off balance and the next thing that Percy knew, he was falling. It wasn’t a terribly long fall, despite being over three hundred feet above the ground. He was saved by the branch below them but it wasn’t a clean save. Percy landed on his feet, one ankle twisting in a groove of the branch and making him fall a second time. He caught himself with his arms, briefly looked like one of those cat posters that said _hang in there_. In a second, Percy hauled himself up so that he sat on the edge of the branch with his legs dangling. 

Luke was beside him in the next heartbeat, face creased with worry. “Are you alright?” 

Percy waved him away. “I’m fine.” His right ankle throbbed but it was a distant pain. 

Luke gave him a once over but couldn’t see anything outwardly wrong. He looked down at the ground a long way below and his fears were written across his face. “Maybe we should get back on solid ground before more squirrels come to attack us.” 

Percy nodded. He didn’t see what the big deal was but his fall obviously worried Luke. As he climbed down with Luke, he felt the bones in his ankle grinding like sand. It didn’t really hurt. Distantly, he wondered if Luke could hear it. 

Luke had insisted on going down first, maybe because he thought he could catch Percy before he hit the ground or maybe because he wanted to fall with him. It was a long climb but once they were on the ground, Luke started back toward the car. 

Percy forced himself to walk without limping. Really, he’d been through worse. This was nothing. Just a little twist. The walk to the car slipped Percy’s mind. He couldn’t remember anything about the walk, not the scenery or whether they encountered other people, or if they spoke to each other. 

Luke handed Percy food and Percy ate it. He drank out of the water bottle that Luke put in his hands. Once again, Luke looked Percy over but didn’t see anything outwardly wrong with him. His expression was concerned. “Do you want to find a hotel?” 

Percy shrugged. 

“Do you want to rough it?” The weather was a little better here. It didn’t drop down to freezing like in the higher elevations and there was no snow. 

“Sure.” 

So they spent the night in Darling’s backseat. Nighttime made the temperature drop but that felt good on the fiery throb of Percy’s ankle. Luke slept on his stomach with Percy laying on top of him and blankets pulled on top of both of them. He felt the beat of Luke’s heart against his ear and fell into a deeper sleep than he thought he would. 

The next morning, when Luke woke up and stretched, it sounded like all of the vertebrae in his spine popped. He moved stiffly despite that and made small groaning noises like he was in pain. 

“Are you okay?” Percy asked. He touched Luke’s forehead but he didn’t seem feverish. Maybe Percy was too heavy to lay on him all night in the cramped car. 

Luke shook his head. “It’s too cold. My scars hurt. We shoulda waited till summer.” He curled up on the back seat and didn’t seem inclined to move more than that. 

Percy left Luke curled underneath the blankets in the backseat and drove to Portland. His ankle screamed but Percy cheerfully ignored it, singing along to one of their CDs. He had to stop and ask directions for a nice hotel - a really nice one - and he was the one who took care of getting their room. Once they were in their room, Percy ordered room service Mac n cheese and cokes, because he knew that Luke liked both of those things. 

Luke ate all of his food but it was with the air of someone who was just adding fuel to the tank. He stared at middlespace and didn’t speak. As Percy got ready for his shower, Luke asked, “Can I come in the bathroom with you?” 

Percy blinked in surprise. “Okay,” he agreed because Luke had allowed him to do the same on the rare times Percy asked. 

Luke slumped on the counter - which wasn’t very big for how much they paid for the room - and held Percy’s clean clothes for him. He closed his eyes as Percy got undressed, kept them closed as Percy got into the shower. 

The door was glass, so Percy could see Luke. He turned the water hot and even when the glass fogged up, Percy could see that Luke hadn’t opened his eyes. It felt nice to have more space in the shower - especially space to step out of the spray. The water made him uncomfortable even as it eased all his little aches and pains. At the cabin, Percy hadn’t had anywhere to get out from beneath the spray of water. Percy took his time getting clean. However, the water didn’t completely heal his ankle. It still felt swollen and achy. 

By the time he turned the water off, there was condensation completely obscuring his view of Luke. Not that it mattered. After opening the shower door, he saw that Luke was in the same position as before, doing his best impression of a statue. 

Percy dried off and took his clothes from Luke’s lap. 

Luke didn’t react. 

Percy was reminded that the lichtenberg scars went all the way down Luke’s arms, twisted around to his palms. And there were the ones on his face and the claw marks from Ladon and the round scar in his armpit where he’d stabbed himself. How deeply did those scars run and did they hurt to their ends? 

“Can I touch you?” Percy asked quietly. 

Luke gave a tiny nod. 

Percy rested his hands on Luke’s knees and then slid them up the tops of his thighs because he knew that there were no scars to hurt there. He ran his palms up and down Luke’s thighs from knee to a spot just below his hip bones. “Would nectar help?” 

“No.” Luke said dully. “And that’s only for emergencies.” 

“Why wouldn’t it help?” 

“They ain’t wounds that can be fixed. They’re scars,” Luke said. His voice was laced with tension. 

“Do you want to go to bed?” 

Luke’s hands suddenly caught Percy’s, pressing his palms into his thighs. There was heat there that Percy suddenly realized had nothing to do with how warm it was in the bathroom. Luke’s eyes, when he opened them, were dilated, irises thin rings of blue. “Percy, baby, I’m already in pain and I don’t really want to be turned on as well.” This was said very mildly. 

Percy pulled his hands away, relieved that Luke let him without a fight. “I-I’m sorry. I just wanted to touch you somewhere it wouldn’t hurt and I didn’t mean to turn you on. I’m sorry.” His voice got smaller as he spoke. Percy didn’t realize he’d been backing away until his back hit the wall. He wished he could melt into it. 

Luke sighed. He stayed where he was on the counter. “I guess this is another thing we should have talked about before getting married.” 

“Probably,” Percy agreed. He ran his fingers nervously along the hem of his pajama shirt. The ribbon was tucked away in his backpack or Darling - not within easy reach. 

“Alright. I think you’re very attractive and I like you and if you wanted to have sex, I would be down for it.” 

“I don’t really want to.” 

“I didn’t think so.” Luke cocked his head. “But you’ve been worried about me wanting to consummate our marriage, haven’t you?” 

Percy’s eyes widened slightly but he nodded. Luke paid close attention; the reveal didn’t come as a big surprise. 

“Percy, I lost all autonomy for over a year. I had no control of what I did or said. I am the last person who will ever take your autonomy away from, okay? I won’t ever do anything to you that you don’t want me to do.” Luke hesitated, then added, “I know that doesn’t mean a lot coming from me, considering our history. I’ll swear on the Styx if you want.” 

For a moment, Percy was tempted to take Luke up on his offer. But only for a moment. If they really couldn’t get through this without involving the Styx, then it spoke bad things of their future together. And Luke made a really, really good point. He knew what it was like to have all control striped away. Percy shook his head no. 

Luke sighed. “Okay.” His eyes slid closed again. 

Percy wanted to say more, wanted to bring up his concerns. He wanted to touch Luke again. By the time he worked up his courage to do both, the fog on the mirror had retreated to the just the edges. This time he reached for Luke’s hair, carding his fingers through the curls. “I thought you didn’t want me like that.” 

Luke gave a long sigh. “How could I not?” Was his answer. 

With that sigh, Percy belated realized he probably wasn’t helping to turn off Luke. But he wanted so desperately to touch him and there were limited spots that Percy could do that without hurting him. “You haven’t shown it.” 

Luke opened his eyes and cocked his head. He studied Percy’s face and seemed to come to a conclusion. “I’ve been trying not to. You told me that you aren’t interested in sex and I don’t want to force you into something you don’t want.” 

Percy didn’t bring up the moment in Bobby’s Jeep or all the times that he wanted to kiss Luke. He didn’t want to imply anything or give undue hope of a future sexual relationship. Instead he ran his hands through Luke’s hair and said, “There’s a tv in the other room that I am dying to watch and I’d like you to be there watching it with me.” 

“Percy, are we good?” Luke asked. He caught Percy’s hands with his. 

“We’re good, Luke,” Percy agreed. 

Luke kissed Percy’s knuckles. 

Percy smiled. 

Luke eased off the counter, groaning like an old man. “Be a good boy and get me my pajamas,” Luke said with a hint of a smirk on his face. 

Percy stuck out his tongue but darted into the bedroom and retrieved Luke’s pajamas for him. His ankle did not like that at all. It still felt like sand grinding when he moved it. He let Luke change in privacy, turned the tv on to find something good to watch. A documentary on wolves caught his interest and Percy settled on the bed to wait for Luke. 

His mind wasn’t really on the documentary. He was reeling with the knowledge that Luke wanted him. Luke actually wanted him. It was Percy’s own fault that Luke never made a move. Which was fine, because it showed how much of a gentleman Luke was. But he wouldn’t just take Percy like some wild animal. He wouldn’t force himself on Percy. He wouldn’t use magic to make Percy want him. 

When Luke came out of the bathroom, he pressed up against Percy’s side and settled in to watch tv.   
  
  
  


Percy managed to hide his afflicted ankle for two days and one night before Luke finally got a look at it and realized something was wrong. “What the fuck,” Luke snapped when he noticed Percy struggling into his sneaker. 

Percy jumped, surprised by the anger in Luke’s voice. His shoe fell out of his hands. He’d been dropping a lot of things lately. 

Luke grabbed Percy by the shin and lifted his foot up. He peeled off the sock that Percy had so carefully put on and pushed up Percy’s pant leg. “What is this and how did it happen?” 

Percy’s ankle was swollen and mottled with bruises. It hurt a lot even when it wasn’t being touched. Luke had lifted his leg so high up that Percy fell back onto the bed. “Um,” he said meekly. “I twisted it when I fell in the tree.” 

Luke’s face turned red with anger. “That was _days_ ago, Percy!” He snarled. “Why didn’t you say anything?” 

Percy’s face warmed with embarrassment and anger but it was only a mild warmth like the light of a candle. Not the raging inferno that was usually Percy’s temper. “Because it wasn’t bothering me. Give me my foot back.” 

“No, because apparently you can’t handle being in possession of it.” Luke looked furious. “If you’d told me, we could have had this healed already but it’s too late for nectar or ambrosia. Now we’ve got to get you to a doctor and gods only know what they’re going to do.” 

“A doctor?” Percy echoed. He tried to pull his leg out of Luke’s grip but that only made Luke’s hand slide closer to his ankle. The flare of pain made him stop that course of action immediately. “What do I need a doctor for? I’m fine.” He stared at the ceiling. 

Luke stared at him like he was an idiot. Then he frowned and carefully set Percy’s leg back onto the bed. He climbed up, straddling Percy, and looked into Percy’s face. “Hey. How many fingers am I holding up?” 

Percy didn’t even flick his eyes toward Luke’s hand. “Hmm. I don’t know.” The ceiling was very interesting. He couldn’t make himself focus on Luke’s face. 

“I’m taking you to the doctor,” Luke said. “Though gods know they’re going to think that I’ve drugged you.” He rolled off of Percy only to pick him up bridal style. Luke carried him to Darling and set Percy in the passenger seat. “No offense, but I’d rather you cry and scream about your pain rather than drop straight into subspace for two goddamn days. I should have known. You did this at Pride too. But no, I thought, _he’s just going through a phase and being weird because we talked about sex._ ” Luke drove them to the nearest urgent care, ranting the entire time. 

Percy didn’t catch most of it. He was too busy cuddling Frank the panda. In fact, Frank was so big that Percy couldn’t even see Luke except sometimes a glimpse of his hand as he gestured. 

“You cannot bring that into the urgent care, Percy,” Luke said as he pulled Percy from the car. 

Percy was sad to leave Frank in the car. His head lolled back over Luke’s arm. “This is totally unnecessary.” 

“You’re lucky that they won’t have to rebreak your ankle,” Luke countered. He was still holding Percy and trying to get him signed in at the same time. When the nurse suggested that maybe he set Percy down in one of the waiting room chairs, Luke just gave her a withering look that shut her right up. He dug through Percy’s pockets until he found his wallet and handed over his driver's license to the nurse. 

The nurse gave Luke a clipboard and Percy’s driver’s license back once they’d made a copy of it. “Just fill this out, honey, and give it back to us when you’re done. The doctor will see him shortly.” 

Only now did Luke find a seat and sit down with Percy still in his lap. He adjusted Percy so that his face was buried in Luke’s neck and Luke had both hands free. Most of the questions on the clipboard Luke answered no to. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no pregnancies, no birth control, no familial diseases, no medications, no allergies, no health concerns aside from the one that brought them in. Under what happened, Luke wrote _fell out of tree._

Percy wrapped his arms around Luke’s neck. “You smell good,” he said. 

“You can’t flatter your way out of this, Percy,” Luke countered. He heaved Percy up and took him and the clipboard back to the nurse’s desk to turn in the paperwork. 

The nurse looked it over. “He doesn’t have health insurance?” she asked, concerned. 

Luke shook his head. Then he returned to their seat. “You should have told me.” 

“I hate it when you’re mad at me.” 

“You ain’t going to guilt me, either,” Luke said bitterly. 

Percy just nuzzled Luke’s neck. He wasn’t trying to get out of it, whatever it was. He was just stating facts. 

“Percy Jastellan?” 

Luke got up and carried Percy through the door. They followed the nurse, who wanted to weigh and measure him. Luke didn’t look happy but he set Percy on the scale and stepped back. 

The nurse took down notes that he didn’t let Percy or Luke see. He gave Luke a warm smile. “You don’t have to carry him.” 

“I want to,” Luke said as he scooped Percy up. His tone didn’t invite more conversation but that didn’t stop their young nurse. 

If Percy didn’t know any better, he would say that Luke was being flirted at. At, not with, because Luke was answering in monotone or just with grunts. Neither of which put off the nurse. 

They were led to a room where Luke set Percy down on the table. He stepped aside to let the nurse take Percy’s vitals. 

“How does the son of a war god end up in nursing?” Percy asked while the nurse took his blood pressure. 

The nurse looked startled for a moment. His black eyes widened. Then he said, “If you keep talking, I’m going to have to start all over again.” 

When the nurse was done with that and jotted it down, Percy rolled up his sleeve to show off his SPQR tattoo. “So? How did you end up doing this?” 

The nurse sighed. “My mother died in Iraq and my grandfather is a Vietnam veteran. I take care of him. Just because I’m the son of Mars, doesn’t mean that all I’m good for is fighting. There are a lot of components to war.” He frowned at the tattoo. “How did a Greek get a praetor rank?” 

Percy smiled, all teeth. “I helped a goddess cross a river.” It didn’t occur to Percy until much later that this son of Mars could tell the Romans that he had met a Greek praetor and then their cover would be blown. But by then it was too late. 

The nurse shook his head in confusion. He scribbled his phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Luke. “I’d like to see you later.” His black eyes flitted to Percy. “You and your...friend. The doctor will be in soon.” Then he was gone, closing the door behind him. 

“Husband,” Luke said belatedly. He crumpled up the paper and threw it in the trash can without even looking at it. 

The doctor looked like he was in a rush. He was an older man with a square face and white hair. The doctor looked at Percy’s ankle. He rotated it in his hand, watching Percy’s face. Then he said, “We’re going to have to do x-rays.” It was another five minutes in the examination room before they were led to another room for the x-rays. 

Percy got to sit down for that and Luke hovered behind the line on the floor that declared he was somehow, magically, out of the radiation zone. “Can we keep the x-rays?” Percy asked the technician. 

“Sure,” she said. “But it’s ten bucks a pop. Insurance doesn’t cover it.” 

“We don’t have insurance,” Luke said. 

“Oh,” said the technician, surprised. 

When the x-rays were over, Luke carried him back to the examination room. They waited for a long time. Luke sat in the chair in the corner and bounced his leg. 

Percy laid back on the table. He didn’t feel too bad. The x-rays had been uncomfortable but otherwise he was fine and Luke was overreacting. He did not mention this to Luke on the grounds that he thought it might push Luke over the edge. 

After a while, the doctor came back in. “I looked at the x-rays. His ankle is broken.” This was said to Luke. “How long ago did this happen?” 

“Two days ago,” Luke said. 

“Why did you wait to come in?” This was said with a hint of suspicion in his voice. 

“He was hiding it,” Luke said with a glare at Percy. 

Percy affected not to have noticed. 

The doctor frowned at both of them. “He seems to be handling his pain quite well, however I’m going to give him a pain killer. It’s a little strong so he shouldn’t be driving or operating heavy machinery.” There was a pause as the doctor consulted Percy’s paperwork. “You don’t have health insurance…?” 

The fact that neither of them had health insurance got brought up a lot. So much, in fact, that Luke finally snapped and said, “My dad is rich and he’s paying for this visit so stop asking about our insurance. You’re going to get paid. Just take care of him.” 

The doctor shrugged and let it go. He didn’t ask any more questions. “We’re going to let the painkillers kick in and then we’ll set his ankle and bandage it.” 

The son of Mars returned and administered the promised drugs to Percy via a syringe. He smiled at Luke, unaware that Luke had thrown his phone number away. “It’ll take a few minutes for that to kick in.” 

The three of them waited in tense silence. 

Percy finally asked, “Don’t you have anything better to do than stand there?” 

Luke snorted. 

The son of Mars’ eyebrow twitched in annoyance. So Frank was an outlier with his gentle disposition. Good to know. “We’re just waiting for the drugs to kick in and the doctor to come back. You’ll be out of here soon.” 

Luke covered his mouth with his hand to hide his smile and said nothing. 

Percy sank a little deeper into himself. He couldn’t feel his ankle throbbing. 

Luke watched him closely, never taking his eyes off Percy’s face. 

Percy like that. He hoped Luke wasn’t still mad at him. 

The doctor came back and the process of setting and bandaging Percy’s foot began. For the most part, this was done without speaking to Percy. Luke was given a list of instructions and warnings. It was only after this, that the doctor asked “what color would you like?” 

“Blue,” Percy said. 

The plaster was wrapped in neon blue tape. Percy was given crutches, which he made a face at. “I don’t want four legs.” 

There was some conferring with the doctor and it was decided that at the moment, the crutches were too close to heavy machinery and so Percy could use them when he wasn’t drugged. 

The nurse carried the crutches and Luke carried Percy. At the nurse’s station, the nurses kept offering payment plans. “No. No. I’m going to pay it all in full. Right now. Yes, I’m aware of how much it is. You just told me.” But finally Luke paid and they were able to leave. 

Luke set Percy in the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt. 

As the son of Mars put the crutches in the car, Percy said, “Hey, war boy, if you tell anyone you saw us, I’ll make your veins explode.” He gave the nurse a toothy, malicious grin. 

Luke closed the passenger door. He spent a moment talking to the other demigod. Then he got into the driver's seat and they left the urgent care parking lot. 

“You didn’t tell him I was lying, did you?” Percy asked, suspiciously. 

“No, I didn’t.” 

When they got back to their hotel,, Luke insisted on carrying Percy up to their room. Which was fine and dandy with Percy because he was feeling light and spongy like angel food cake. He kicked open the door of their hotel room and set Percy on the bed before even turning on the lights. 

Percy clung to Luke’s neck. “You’re so good, Luke. You take such good care of me.” His foot was the only heavy part about him, done up in that stupid plaster cast. But even that didn’t bother him much because now it was just him and Luke and no more stinky hospital or stupid Roman demigods flirting with his huband. 

Luke shivered. “Let go, baby, I’ve gotta close the door.” He slipped out of Percy’s grip without waiting for a reply. The door closed and Percy heard the lock engaged. A moment later, the light beside the bed turned on and there was Luke beside him. 

Percy reached for him. 

He shook his head. “I’m going to shower,” Luke said. “I’ll be back soon. I’m just going to shower. Will you be okay by yourself?” 

Percy pouted. 

“I’ll turn the tv on for you,” Luke promised. He turned the television on to cartoons and set the remote within Percy’s reach. Then he disappeared into the bathroom. A moment later the water started. 

Percy stared at the tv until it made him feel dizzy, then he looked away. His skin tingled and broke out into goosebumps. He thought about Luke shivering in his arms. He almost, _almost_ caught that feeling from Bobby’s Jeep. That feeling of wanting Luke’s hands on him. 

Percy would have known what Luke was doing in the shower even if he didn’t have the water to tell him. His husband was hot blooded and those with hot, fast blood were easily aroused. Maybe Percy couldn’t help with banking Luke’s fire but there were other things he could do. Like make it burn hotter. 

Oh, he was really high, Percy realized all of a sudden. Luke got out of the shower and he wasn’t even dried off before Percy called him. “Luke, come here.” 

Luke was there in a heartbeat, towel wrapped around his waist. He looked a bit panicked, as though anything could have happened to Percy in the time it took him to jack off. “Yeah?” 

“I miss you. Come here.” Percy made grabby hands for Luke. 

Luke’s shoulders dropped in relief. Something he could easily fix. “Let me get dressed.” 

“Luke,” Percy whined. 

“It’ll only take a second.” 

“Luke, please. I miss you. Come lay with me.” Percy flashed his puppy dog eyes. 

Luke couldn’t say no to the puppy dog eyes. He carefully climbed into bed and curled himself around Percy, pressed up against his back. “Happy?” 

Now that they were touching, Percy could dry Luke off and he did. “Yeah. I missed you.” 

“So you said,” Luke said, amused. He pulled the comforter over them. 

“Didn’t you miss me?” 

Luke laced their fingers together. “Yes.” 

“You’re so good, Luke.” 

Percy felt Luke’s heart skip a beat. “You’re spoiled.” 

“Only because you’re so good to me.” Percy yawned. There was something warm and important that he wanted to say. But he was so tired suddenly. “Luke, I...” 

A while later, Percy almost surfaced from sleep, just enough to hear Luke murmur something to him. Then he was back under.   
  
  
  


It turned out that having a broken ankle was very, very annoying. Percy couldn’t get the cast wet, which was fine since he was a son of Poseidon. No plastic bags for him. No, it was the other parts that bothered him. 

It was hot and itchy almost immediately. His leg was heavy so rolling over in bed was a process. He had to use crutches to get around, which hurt his arm pits and made people rush to open doors for him. Percy could get a decent momentum going but, again, it hurt, and it wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun anything that wanted to kill him. 

They were in Portland now, and had been there for a few days. The ice on the sidewalks made it hard for Percy to use his crutches so he was confined to the hotel. There wasn’t a lot that he could do, even in the upscale hotel. 

There was a pool, which Percy sat on the side of while Luke swam laps. He considered getting in himself but _water_. And it was chlorinated, which made his gills ache. That didn’t stop him from dangling his good foot in the water. 

If it bothered Luke to be stuck in one place for another week, he didn’t show it. Maybe because they weren’t actually stuck and could leave whenever they wanted. 

Luke made use of the hotel’s gym, working out for a couple hours a day. 

Percy could use some of the equipment - mainly anything that didn’t involve standing or using his legs - so he worked out too. It felt good to use his muscles again; had been too long since he had to push himself. This, of course, was a controlled environment and way different from the exertion he was used to. 

They were beginning to draw a bit of a crowd in the mornings after breakfast while they were working out. Mostly mortals, who watched them through the mirrors that lined the walls or looked in through the hallway windows or just stared while they worked out on nearby equipment. 

The only person brave enough to speak to them was a cattish demigod who smelled like incense. Percy thought of him as cattish because of the shape of his face and the yellow-green color of his eyes. He couldn’t name the god or goddess that the demigod belonged to and he didn’t ask. 

“I’m Abayomi. Someone wrote a review about two hotties in the gym of this hotel,” the demigod said, showing them his phone. He seemed to only have eyes for Luke, despite saying two hotties. “So I had to come check them out.” This was said looking into Luke’s eyes. 

“Is everyone a voyeur?” Luke asked. There was no inflection in his tone, no hint that he liked or disliked the attention. 

Abayomi pressed a keycard to his room into Luke’s hand. “If you want more exercise,” he purred. 

Shortly after Abayomi left, Luke said, “I’ll be right back.” Then he disappeared. Three minutes later, Luke was back. That was too soon for sex. 

Percy frowned. He was distracted for the rest of the workout. When Luke tried to talk to him, Percy just grunted. He was too lost in his own head. 

Percy had always known that Luke was popular among the ladies and now he knew it was true with the men too. Luke never had trouble pulling. Percy thought it was fairly impressive that no matter where they went, Luke always managed to find the one gay demigod in town for a quickie. To be perfectly honest, though, Percy only marginally paid attention to Luke’s sexual escapades. 

Now that he thought about it more, there were a lot of nights where Luke would leave their hotel room for a little while only to come and immediately shower before crawling into bed with Percy. In the beginning, Percy had been tense around every display of physical closeness but eventually he relaxed and grew to enjoy Luke’s platonic company in bed. It seemed that for a while, Percy forgot why Luke came to renew Percy’s scent on his skin. 

Which, Percy could admit, was stupid of him. 

He just didn’t realize how often Luke was propositioned until it started happening in great earnest, usually right in front of Percy. Phone numbers were slipped to him, innuendos were made, blatant flirting happened. If they happened to be at a bar, someone would buy Luke a drink. Waiters and waitresses alike often suggested that they would be off shift in a few hours if Luke wasn’t busy. 

Percy was beginning to feel like chopped liver. 

More than that, Percy was beginning to get worried as Luke turned down each and every offer, and ignored the flirting. Sometimes he was snappish, sometimes he laughed like it had been a joke, sometimes he just stared until the hopeful person went away. It didn’t matter if they were demigods or mortals; Luke rejected all of them. 

It was an odd thing to be so invested in someone else’s sex life, Percy thought as he got into the shower to wash off the sweat from their workout. He stood under the water and listened for the door to open and Luke to slip away. Just because Luke’s footsteps were silent, didn’t mean that the doors he walked through were. But there was no sound of a door opening. 

When Percy got out of the shower, he found Luke studying the coffees on the dresser. Luke flashed him a brief smile before going into the bathroom for his own shower. 

Percy sat on the edge of the bed and tried to remember the last time he’d seen Luke slip off with another man. He couldn’t remember. How long ago had it been? Percy bit his lip. He twisted his wedding ring around his finger. “Do you still have Abayomi’s room key?” Percy asked the moment that the water shut off. 

Luke called back from the bathroom, “No. I turned it in to the front desk.” 

Well, that explained why he was back so quickly. Percy’s frown deepened. Maybe Luke didn’t find Abayomi attractive. But Luke didn’t seem to have a type beyond hot gay demigod. Maybe Percy wasn't paying close enough attention. 

“Why do you ask?” Luke poked his head out of the bathroom. “Whoa. What’s with that face?” 

“You haven’t been...fucking anyone,” Percy said. He was going to say _sleeping with_ but that felt too intimate a term for all the quickies. And Luke slept with Percy every night. That was a stupid euphemism for sex. 

Luke cocked his head. “Uh…” 

“How long has it been?” 

Luke didn’t have to tell him. It wasn’t really Percy’s business. But despite the uncomfortable expression on Luke’s face, he answered, “A few months.” 

“ _Months?!_ ” Percy echoed, shocked. Weeks wouldn’t have surprised him but entire months? That was such a long time. “But why?” 

“Because I don’t want to?” Luke probably didn’t mean to make it sound like a question. He disappeared back into the bathroom. 

“But...but…” Percy struggled to get his thoughts back in order. He pulled the ribbon from his pocket and started tying it. Suddenly, it didn’t feel very helpful. He longed to pace but his stupid ankle. “Your face says you're lying.” 

The miscellaneous sounds of Luke moving things around in the bathroom abruptly stopped. Luke was suddenly in the doorway. “ _What?_ ” he asked, voice hard. 

“Every time someone invites you to have sex, you get this look on your face like you’d like nothing better than to run off with them. I don’t get why you don’t.” Percy’s hands felt cold under Luke’s intense gaze. He went through the motions of tying a bow quickly so that Luke wouldn’t notice his hands shaking. What changed a few months ago? They ran into Nico. Was that months ago? Percy honestly couldn’t remember. 

Luke stared at him for a long few moments. “So you’re having issues with me not having sex with other people.” 

What did _other people_ mean? Percy untied the bow and started again. It sounded stupid when Luke put it like that. “Well…” Percy sighed and threw his hands up. The ribbon drifted to the floor. “You’re so hot blooded and you were jumping on every chance to have sex a few months ago and it...it’s weird that you’ve suddenly stopped. Your blood is too hot and fast to just… I don’t understand why you’re making yourself miss out on something you obviously want. It isn’t like they aren’t attractive. I would fuck them if...if…” if Percy’s blood wasn’t so cool and still. 

Luke cocked his head the other way. “I don’t consider being faithful to my husband as _‘missing out’_ ,” he said crossly. Then he disappeared from view. He sighed, a quiet sound that Percy barely heard over the hum of the heater. 

Percy felt like he’d been slapped. He picked his ankle up off the floor so that he could sit crosslegged. His hands shook. What did Luke mean by that? Why would he want to be faithful to Percy? This was a marriage of convenience. It didn’t matter to Percy if Luke had ‘affairs’ because Percy wasn’t going to be able to satisfy that need of Luke’s. And they weren’t a real couple. 

He was so confused. 

Then he remembered what Luke had told him before they got married. 

_“She’s the goddess of marriage, Percy. She can’t make the Olympians uphold their vows but she’ll go batshit on demigods. Especially two demigods that she doesn’t like.”_

Guilt crashed into Percy as he suddenly understood. By marrying him, Luke had tied himself to Percy in more than just name. He gave up sex with other people on the off chance that Hera might find out and punish both of them. Percy looked down at his wedding ring, the simple braided metal, and wondered if the tradeoff was really worth it for Luke. 

A few minutes after disappearing, Luke came back out. He looked calmer as he knelt in front of Percy. His hands were warm against Percy’s. “Baby, I’m really not upset or angry or anything else negative that your brain is cooking up. I can live without having sex. I’m happy with you, how we are now and I’m going to be happy with you how we are when we’re older.” 

Percy searched Luke’s blue eyes and only saw sincerity in them. A treacherous voice in his head said that Luke was the best liar that Percy knew. Maybe he was only saying it to quell the immediate problem. But what about six months from now? A year? Ten years? Would Luke still be happy with just Percy? Percy didn’t want this to be a sore spot between them, especially since it was his fault. “I’m sorry,” he said. 

Luke stood up and kissed Percy’s forehead. “Don’t worry about it.”   
  
  
  


As they moved from Portland, Oregon to Washington State, Percy tried to put it out of his head. But for better or worse, Percy had a lot of time to think. Distracting himself with physical exercise or driving became impossible when he was hardly allowed to do the first and never the second. 

“Your ankle will be healed in another three weeks,” Luke said, trying to be assuring. They stood in a Starbucks coffee shop that smelled absolutely delicious. The store was done up in red packaging and garland and a tiny Christmas tree. There were snowflake decals on the windows. 

There were baked goods in a display case that Percy was eyeing. He wanted to stuff his face with sugary treats and forget about his troubles. “It’s probably already healed. I’m a demigod,” Percy insisted. 

“Sid said that it will take four weeks for your ankle to heal completely. If you weren’t mortal, it would take twice as long.” Luke looked up at the menu, reading his options. As it was December, they were advertising several peppermint drinks. When it was their turn, Luke ordered an iced peppermint mocha. 

Percy got a hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint in it just because they couldn’t escape Christmas no matter where they went. And he got a slice of banana nut bread. “Who’s Sid?” 

“Sid is the nurse from the urgent care,” Luke said, amused. He led the way to an empty table. And once he was sure that Percy was settled, Luke went back to the counter to wait on their order. 

Percy sat at the table and people watched. Everyone was bundled in warm clothing. One girl nearby was done up in red and white and had a pair of ice skates slung over her shoulder. A man in his fifties sat in the corner typed away at a laptop, his blueberry muffin only half eaten. Several middle aged women came in with toddlers and bought cake pops for their kids while they got coffees. 

This time of year was always a confusing and slightly disappointing one. Percy wasn’t sure if they’d ever celebrated Hanukkah when he was younger, because he didn’t have a lot of memories from their life before Gabe. He knew that his family was Jewish and that his grandparents practiced the faith but his uncle hadn’t. Sally said that she used to celebrate some of the holidays before marrying Gabe but not all of them and she didn’t consider herself to be religious. Gabe was born and raised Christian and had celebrated Christmas all his life...but he didn’t want to spend the money on gifts and so they didn’t celebrate that either. 

Percy liked the aesthetic of Christmas as in the deer and pine trees and lights. He liked the log cabin feeling that a lot of the ornaments in the stores had. He didn’t like the religious aspect but as the years passed, it was easier to separate Christmas from Christ. If that god was real, he was probably very wealthy and very pissed about how his holidays were commercialized. 

Luke returned with a phone number on his coffee cup. He made a face at it like it said something rude about his mother. He gave Percy his treats. 

Percy dug into his bread. It was decent for being part of a chain store. “Do you celebrate Christmas?” Percy asked. 

“No. Mom’s hellenistic.” Luke paused. “Well, she was.” His blue eyes were full of sorrow. 

“I met your mom once,” Percy said and immediately regretted it. The story of meeting May Castellan wasn’t a pleasant one. 

Luke stiffened. “Why?” 

“We went to her house to confirm how to bathe in the Styx,” Percy said, watching Luke’s face carefully. He was good during the visit but likely Luke didn’t want him to visit at all. 

Luke’s shoulders were still raised in tension. “We?” 

“Me and Nico,” Percy said. He regretted bringing this up, probably would have regretted it less if May was still alive but it was still a regret. Luke didn’t say anything so Percy pressed on. “She thought Nico and I were you.” 

Percy didn’t realize that it was possible for Luke’s eyes to become sadder than they already were. Even when Luke smiled, his eyes were still sad. People would write songs about the sorrow in Luke’s blue eyes if they ever caught a glimpse. Luke’s eyes stayed dry but that hardly made a difference. “I hope you were nice to her,” Luke muttered after a long and tense silence. His shoulders drooped. 

“I promised her that you...I would be safe,” Percy said and hoped it was enough. 

Luke stared down at his coffee cup for a long few minutes. “Thanks, Percy.” Percy was halfway done with his banana nut bread before Luke started drinking his coffee again. He cast his gaze around, taking in the coffee shop. “Do you celebrate Christmas?” 

Percy shook his head. “We didn’t celebrate anything.” 

“Do you want to do something for the season?” Luke asked. 

“Like what?” Percy sipped his hot chocolate. The peppermint flavor almost overwhelmed the chocolate. Next time he would get it without. 

Despite the thoughtful look in Luke’s eyes, he shrugged. “It’s your father’s month.” 

Percy wrinkled his nose. 

Luke smiled and it almost reached his eyes. “I agree.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “We should get some candles.” 

“For what?” 

“To light.” Luke sat up straighter, more excited now that he was making plans. “You’re supposed to light candles for your ancestors but the only ancestors I know are on dad’s side of the family. So I’d like to light some candles for...for the friends I’ve lost.” 

Percy nodded in agreement. “Okay. That sounds good.” He imagined a lot of small candles lit around their hotel room. Fire danger wasn’t a big worry for him since he could, if it was necessary, explode the pipes in a building and use the water in them to put out a fire. “Anything else?” 

“A bottle of wine.” At the expression on Percy’s face, Luke hurried to add, “You don’t have to drink it.” 

“Are you going to drink it?” 

“Maybe a sip.” Luke shrugged. “I don’t really like alcohol anymore…” 

Percy cocked his head. “When did you have alcohol?” 

Luke sighed. “I spent a few years being an alcoholic.” 

Percy’s eyes widened. “What? How? Which ones?” 

“Uh, seventeen to….twenty...something.” 

That left Percy with more questions than answers. But there was one thing that he forgot about. “How old are you now?” 

Luke had a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face. “Um...It’s still 2010 so...uh…” he trailed off. “I was twenty-two when I died so I missed my twenty-third birthday. The birthday that just passed was supposed to be my twenty-fourth?” 

Well that didn’t really clear anything up. “Do you feel twenty-three or twenty-four?” Percy asked. 

Luke shrugged. “Twenty...four...I guess.” 

Percy decided not to argue about it, though he didn’t know why Luke would choose to be older when he was a year younger than he should have been. “How did you get alcohol?” 

Luke snorted. “How do you think? We lived with the god of wine.” At Percy’s expression, Luke added, “ _He_ isn’t allowed to drink it but that doesn’t mean he can’t make it for other people.” 

“That’s so fucking irresponsible,” Percy spat. He didn’t like alcohol, none of it, because Gabe drank beer and anything that Gabe did turned Percy off so much that he didn’t want anything to do with anything even remotely fermented. It was the same with anything that needed to be smoked. Sometimes Percy thought that smoking a bowl of weed would be nice - he really needed to relax - but then he remembered how Gabe used to put his cigars out on Percy’s back and chest and then he’d get nauseous by the very idea of smoking. Despite many reassurances from both demigods and mortals that weed was nothing like cigarettes and cigars, Percy just couldn’t make himself try it. 

Luke shrugged. “Are you surprised? As far as they’re concerned, I was of age.” 

Percy knew that the gods had a weird juxtaposition where they lived partially in the past and partially in the present. It seemed that sometimes they picked and choosed the rules but there was nothing that anyone could do about it. He remembered his dad calling him a man on his fifteenth birthday. “It’s still fucked up.” Percy eyed Luke. “I never smelled it on you.” 

Luke shook his head. “Before I left Camp, it was just a bottle once a month. I picked it up more after I left.” 

Percy was tempted to ask why but he held his tongue. He could guess well enough. “So what’s the wine for?” 

“My dad.” 

They hadn’t made an offering to Hermes since the night before they left Camp Half-Blood. If Hermes really was shielding them from monsters and the powers that be, then he deserved a bit of an offering. Nothing extravagant, because the guy was still an asshole who did wrong by Luke, but something to show that they were grateful. “That’s a good idea.” 

Luke finished his coffee and got up to throw the cup in the trash. When he sat back down, he said. “I want to get you something.” 

Percy couldn’t help the way he perked up at that. But he was confused and his laughter showed it. “What do you mean? You get me stuff all the time.” 

Luke gave Percy a faint smile. It wasn’t often that Percy acknowledged that Luke paid for everything. It wasn’t _his_ money that he’d earned, but the card was in his name. Percy’s cash had long since run out and he hadn’t had a chance to find a job and earn more. “Just a small thing. Not necessary to our survival.” The tips of Luke’s ears turned red. 

Percy’s face warmed at the sight. He shoved the last bit of bread in his mouth and finished his drink, giving himself time to think about it. Luke never _mentioned_ when he wanted to get things for Percy. Sometimes, like with the panda plushie, Percy asked for things. But usually Percy just silently added things to their cart or onto the conveyor belt without saying a word to Luke about it. There was a distinction here that Luke clearly wanted to make between everything else and this gift. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what it is?” 

Luke’s smile returned, his eyes turned mischievous. “No. Not unless you _really_ want me to.” 

“Nah,” Percy decided. “It can be a surprise.” He noted the way that Luke fractionally relaxed. “As long as I can get you something too.” 

Luke tried to hide how pleased he was by shrugging but Percy could still see it.   
  
  
  


They wound up in a craft store, of all places. Percy was fairly certain that he’d never been a craft store in his whole life. It reminded him of Rachel Elizabeth Dare and he took a moment to remember his dear friend, the girl he loved. No magic involved. As it was only a couple weeks before Christmas, there were aisles upon aisles of Christmas junk. Some of it looked cool, aesthetically, and it all had a very distinctive smell that Percy couldn’t place. 

“I’ll meet you out front of the store when we’re done?” Luke said, looking antsy to go off on his own. He handed Percy the Hermes Express card. 

“Okay,” Percy agreed as he tucked it into his wallet. 

Almost before he could finish the word, Luke disappeared. 

Percy shook his head fondly and began to wander the aisles. The ones that _weren’t_ Christmas themed. He didn’t really know what to get Luke. It would be better if he knew what Luke was getting him. Then he could make sure that it was appropriate. Percy sighed. He wasn’t any good at gift-giving. Mostly due to a lack of practice, he suspected, as he’d never had the money to buy anything or the creativity to make anything. 

As he walked the aisles, Percy reflected that this was the first time that they’d been apart for more than a few minutes. He hoped Luke was in the backroom, letting out some of that pent up sexual energy. Luke’s agitation the last time that Percy brought it up was still fresh in his mind. Was it really cheating if Percy gave him permission? 

Down the bead aisle, Percy was distracted by the many pretty things. There were a lot of stones; bags full of pre-drilled stones, stones dangling along lengths of string, single stones attached to a small piece of cardboard. What really caught Percy’s eye was the jewelry. Some of those pretty stones were already made into earrings or necklaces. As he viewed the selection, Percy’s eyes were repeatedly drawn to the sea glass. He couldn’t tell if it was real or not, but it was such a pretty green. He knew that Luke liked it because Luke had picked some up off the beach to keep. He also knew that Luke’s ears were pierced. 

Percy picked out a nice pair of dangling earrings. He mulled over the necklace that matched, but it was a choker and the beads were round; it felt too much like a Camp Half-Blood necklace. There were rings but not as nice as their wedding rings, so Percy skipped that too. A few feet away, he found a shelf with various gift boxes and chose a shiny gold one. Then, he went to stand in line. It was a long line, this close to the holiday. 

There was no sign of Luke so far. 

Maybe he was getting laid or blowing someone. 

Percy frowned. His thoughts felt very invasive lately; especially since Luke said that he was going to be faithful. Did this mean that Percy didn’t trust Luke as much as he said he did? He didn’t really forgive Luke for trying to kill him all those years ago...but still. Percy was willing to move on from it. 

It was his turn to pay and Percy slid the Hermes Express card through with no problem. His purchase was bagged and handed to him and now all Percy needed to do was find Luke and keep the gift a secret. 

Luke leaned against the building, staring up at the sky. A plastic bag hung from the crook of one elbow. He didn’t smell like sex or latex. “Do you want me to carry that for you?” He asked when he saw Percy. 

“And give you the chance to peek?” Percy teased. 

Luke grinned. “I’ll get the car. Stay here.” A few minutes later, Luke pulled the car up to the curb. He didn’t need to help Percy get in anymore; after doing this for two weeks, Percy had it down. 

That night, while Luke was in the shower, Percy put the earrings in the box and peeled the price tag off. He put it in his backpack for safe keeping. 

As they settled in for their nightly routine of watching tv till they fell asleep, Percy couldn’t concentrate on the show. They were in one bed again, like they’d been since November. Luke didn’t even ask anymore. Would he be upset if Percy asked for space? Would he say no if Percy asked to sleep in separate beds? 

At the next hotel, Percy decided he would ask for separate beds. Not because he wanted to sleep in separate beds, just because he wanted to see if Luke would do it.   
  
  
  


At the next hotel, Percy spoke to the desk clerk before Luke could. “Two beds, please.” He purposely avoided looking at Luke’s face. 

Luke said nothing about the arrangement. Maybe he didn’t care. And why would he care? Sharing a bed was for Percy’s benefit. 

They carried their bags to their room. Luke took one bed. 

Percy took the other. 

They ordered room service. Not Mac-n-cheese, but sandwiches. Luke made coffee but didn’t drink even a full cup. They ate with the tv on and didn’t talk. 

Luke watched Percy, stole concerned glances at him when he thought that Percy wasn’t looking. 

Percy ignored the looks. He had made things immensely awkward but it seemed too late to back out now. How could Percy even explain the issue? He didn’t even know what the issue _was._

When he was done eating, Luke turned the light by his bed off and laid on his side his back to Percy. He skipped the shower for the first time in six months. 

Percy didn’t want to stare at Luke’s back so he got in the shower. His heart was heavy. This was so stupid, he thought. He couldn’t be so dependent on Luke’s presence beside him that he sulked like a child over something this stupid. When he returned to the room, Luke hadn’t moved. Percy got into his bed and tried to go to sleep. 

They didn’t share a bed at all for the next week and Luke didn’t seem to care at all. He didn’t say anything even once, or ask to climb into bed with Percy. His concerned expressions slowly started to fade when he realized that this wasn’t Percy backsliding into paranoia. Things continued on exactly as before except with one huge, glaring difference. 

Luke didn’t touch Percy at all. 

Percy didn’t notice how often they touched until Luke wasn’t touching him anymore. And since Luke didn’t touch him anymore, Percy stopped touching Luke too. It was making him miserable but he tried not to show it.   
  
  
  


On the day of the winter solstice, Luke woke up before Percy and jumped on the bed until Percy was annoyed enough to wake up. They got dressed - fleece-lined leggings and a sweater for Luke, black jeans and a hoodie for Percy - and headed downstairs to get breakfast. There was no one else in the dining room this early in the morning. The sun wasn’t even up yet. 

Percy followed Luke around with a plate, allowing the man to make his food for him, staring blearly and yawning every few seconds. He hated mornings. Normally they slept later than five am. And Luke wanted him to mess with fire later. It felt like a bad idea. 

The silence today wasn’t as loaded as it had been since Percy first asked for separate beds. Luke hummed between bites, casting his gaze around the empty dining room, occasionally making eye contact with Percy when he looked at him. 

It took Percy almost the entire meal to realize that they were eating only meat. He was too tired to ask why. 

Back in their room, Luke unzipped his backpack and pulled out a package wrapped in silver paper. He handed it to Percy. 

Percy sat on the armchair in the corner and unwrapped the package. Beneath the silver paper was a box with a picture of a pastel blue camera on it. It was a polaroid camera. “Oh,” he said. The gift meant a lot to Percy. It meant that Luke listened to him and that he was willing to document their travels. “Thank you, Luke.” He opened the box and read the instructions. It was fairly easy, it seemed. Point and shoot. Don’t touch the photographs. 

Now it was Percy’s turn. He presented Luke with the gift. 

Luke carefully opened the golden box and looked inside. His face lit up with delight when he saw the earrings. Immediately, he took out his diamond studs and put the sea glass ones in. Luke beamed at Percy and made a motion like he wanted to hug him but then...didn’t. Instead, he went to the mirror in the hallway and admired his new earrings, turning his head this way and that to see how they caught the light. “They’re beautiful. I love them. Thank you, Percy.” 

Percy lifted his camera and snapped a photo while Luke was still. He caught the polaroid and waited for it to develop. 

The background was dark, Luke’s skin and hair were pale. The colors were washed out and you could barely see his scars. His earrings and his eyes were the only spots of color. Luke had a small smile on his face, a contented expression that Percy felt lucky to have memorialized via photograph. 

“Do you wanna see?” Percy asked, his face warming. 

“Yeah. Let’s see.” Luke handled the photograph carefully. He let out a low whistle when he saw it. “Damn, you made me look good.” 

Percy scoffed and shook his head. “You always look like a model. I got lucky that it turned out good.” Despite his words, he was pleased by Luke’s praise. 

Luke’s face took on an expression of longing. He shook his head. “Help me with the candles?” 

The candles were white and fat. There were a dozen of them. Percy set the candles up on the table in the vague shape of a caduceus. 

Luke reached around him with a lighter, carefully lighting each wick. 

Every _schnick_ of the lighter made Percy’s skin crawl. He retreated to his bed while Luke was occupied. His back and chest burned with phantom pain. 

Luke had found a mini bottle of wine at the liquor store and now he carefully poured some wine onto each candle. He didn’t speak as he did this, but Percy could practically hear him thinking _for Hermes_. The wine didn’t extinguish the small orange flames, which was odd to Percy. “Let’s see...there aren’t really any country songs about the Greek gods. Or my father.” 

“Do you need a song for everything?” Percy asked, mostly curious. Their room smelled more strongly of hot candle wax than ever, and now burning, fermented grapes as added to it. The mixture of scents was heady and it made Percy kind of dizzy. 

“Yes,” Luke said without hesitation. 

“You come up with our theme song yet?” 

Luke looked at him for a long moment, bit his lip, and looked away. “I haven’t decided yet.” 

“Do _you_ have a theme song?” 

“That’s narcissistic,” Luke replied, which wasn’t a no. 

“What about me? Do you have one for me?” 

“I’ve got a few for you,” Luke admitted. He very carefully leaned against the table, making sure to avoid catching fire. 

Percy couldn’t resist lifting the camera and snapping another picture of Luke. He watched it develop as he asked, “Tell me one?” 

“I’d sure hate to break down here / nothin up ahead or in the rear view mirror / out in the middle of nowhere, knowin / I’m in trouble if these wheels stop rollin / so gods, help me keep me moving somehow / don’t let me start wishin I was with him now / I made it this far without cryin a single year / I’d sure hate to break down here.” 

“Oh,” Percy said softly. “Anything else?” 

It was difficult to tell in the candlelight, but Percy suspected that Luke’s face was red. “Yeah. But I ain’t telling you.” 

“Aw, why not?” 

“Because one is going to make you cry and the others are love songs,” Luke said. He pushed off the table and opened the side table drawer. From within, he produced a sharpie marker. Luke sat down on the bed. “Let me see your leg.” 

Percy shifted his casted foot to Luke’s lap. “What kind of love songs?” 

Luke shook his head. He began drawing on the cast. “That’s enough singing for now.” 

Percy decided against pushing Luke. 

There was silence for a long time as Luke drew on the cast. He drew up a likeness of Medusa that wrapped around Percy’s foot and a lightning bolt beside her on one side, an owl with its wings extended and talons reaching on the other side. Then he drew a trident piercing Medusa’s abdomen, right between her hips. 

“Are you drawing a myth on my cast?” 

“I didn’t mean to…” Luke made a face. “This is a bad one.” 

Percy looked down at the drawing. “Her sisters told me that they can still smell Medusa’s blood on me.” 

Luke made another face. “Demigod blood leaves a stain that’s hard to get rid of.” 

Percy froze. “What?” 

“She’s technically a second gen primordial goddess but she came out looking like a beautiful maiden so someone _probably_ cheated, making her a demigod.” Luke tapped the owl. “She took Medusa on as a priestess who vowed celibacy. Which worked out fine until your dad came along.” 

“And they fell in love, right?” 

Luke glanced up at his face. “No. Your dad raped her in the temple and when the wisdom goddess found out that Medusa’s vows had been broken, she turned her into a hideous monster.” Luke added a pegasus. “She gave birth to Pegasus, the original.” 

Percy felt his world turn upside down. Medusa was the mother of Pegasus? Pegasus was his brother so…Blackjack was his niece? But the real thing that Percy couldn’t get over was that Poseidon raped Medusa. “That isn’t what Annabeth taught me.” 

“Why would she? All she’s ever wanted in life is to impress her mother.” Luke drew a copy of Riptide. He sighed. “At Camp, they teach you watered down _family friendly_ versions of the myths that paint the gods in the best possible light. Greek mythology isn’t usually taught to middle or high schoolers so how are they going to refute it? Especially since most of us don’t live to be adults.” 

Percy frowned. “That’s why the other demigods we’ve met, none of them said their godly parents' name.” 

Luke nodded. “They won’t say it outright, but most of them are hiding from their parents even when they embrace their natural talents to the point of being noticed by the gods and monsters.” Luke removes Percy’s foot from his lap. He put the sharpie in his backpack. 

“Are you still angry?” Percy asked when the silence became too much. 

Luke sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m trying not to be.” 

“Wanna go work out?” Percy suggested, because he knew Luke wouldn’t like to be cooped up. 

Luke looked relieved. “Yeah. Let’s put the candles out first though.” 

And that was their holiday.   
  
  
  


They rang in the new year at a remote hotel that overlooked a snowy forest. It was picturesque but the lighting wasn’t good enough to take a photo. They sat on the balcony, bundled up in warm clothing, staring out at the dark forest. Their breaths puffed out like smoke. In the background, the tv was set to a station that played the ball dropping in Times Square. The announcer’s voice could be heard drifting through the open door. 

Percy and Luke sat side by side, each with a coke in their laps. “Do you think that 2011 will be better?” Percy asked. 

“Better than this?” Luke asked, tone indicating that it didn’t get better than this. 

New Years already hit the East Coast; they were three hours behind on the West Coast. They’d watched the ball drop and now the news was playing footage from previous years and talking about predictions for the upcoming year. The news people talked about all the kissing couples. 

Percy didn’t know the exact time but he knew that Luke knew and it was getting close. “I’ve never actually seen the ball drop in person.” 

“Me either,” Luke said. 

“I used to clean up after it though.” Percy made a face. “People are gross.” 

“They sure are.” 

“How much time now?” 

“Twelve seconds.” 

Percy hoped that Luke wouldn’t kiss him. Even though he really wanted to be kissed and he thought it would be terribly romantic. A dozen of these thoughts flew around in Percy’s head in the twelve seconds before New Years happened. What came out of his mouth was probably the least romantic words ever, “My brain keeps telling me that you’re going to force me into something I don’t want even though I know in, like, my soul, that you won’t.” 

Luke took a drink of his coke like he wished it was alcohol. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Percy added quietly. Percy put his head in his hands. “What’s wrong with me? Why am I like this? I trust you, I swear it, Luke. So why do I have these thoughts?” 

Luke ran both hands over his face and leaned back in his seat. “I’m not saying this to psychoanalyze you, but it’s probably got a lot to do with how the people you trust have betrayed and abused you - me included - and that you’ve been trained to see threats everywhere.” 

Before Percy could even begin to contemplate that, Luke added, “If we can find a therapist, will you talk to one? I can guess what might be the cause but I can’t help you work through it and since I’m part of the problem, I don’t really think I should be the…” Luke paused, thinking, “the authoritative voice on the matter.” 

Luke wanted him to talk to a therapist? Percy thought about it, drinking his coke to buy some time. When the can was half empty, Percy finally set it down. “Do you really think it will help?” 

“I do,” Luke said earnestly. 

“How will we find one?” 

“I’ll figure it out.” 

“I’m sorry for being a burden.” 

Luke shook his head. He made an aborted motion like he wanted to touch Percy. “Percy, I’m naturally a caretaker. I like taking care of people. I like taking care of _you._ I’m trying, baby, and I think this is out of my area of expertise, but you aren’t a burden on me.” 

Percy let that sink in. “Okay. The next time we’re in civilization, I’ll try talking to a therapist,” Percy promised. 

Luke got a look on his face like he wanted to kiss Percy. Instead he let all the tension bleed out of his body. “Good.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People get hurt, a moose dies, and therapy happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @MandatoryTomato, I told you that I wouldn't be updating until March but...I ended my hiatus early. 
> 
> The song Luke sings is [Red Ragtop by Tim McGraw.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk5Qj68YKCs)
> 
> So we're back! And we're starting off with a rather graphic car accident.

### “Everyone has a thousand wishes before a tragedy, but just one afterward.” — Fredrik Backman, Beartown 

They took a detour through southern Idaho to visit Yellowstone National Park. Despite how much land the park took up, they still had to pay to pass through. It wasn’t a problem for them because they had unlimited funds, but Percy wondered how many people had to pay just to pass through on their commute. Percy liked Idaho. There were almost no telephone poles stretching across the landscape, which was unique to this state as far as Percy could tell. The foliage grew up close to the road and it was a lovely green that Percy had never seen anywhere else. 

It was an unseasonably warm day and there was a fine drizzle that blanketed the world in a natural mist. The heater was on low, keeping them warm as they ate up miles of asphalt. 

Luke was in the driver's seat; singing some sad song, his voice making it even sadder than it already was. “So we did what we did and we tried to forget / and we swore up and down there would be no regrets / in the morning light / but on the way home that night / on the back of that red rag top / she said, "Please don't stop / lovin' me” / we took one more trip around the sun / but it was all make-believe in the end -” 

The moose came out of nowhere. 

They hit it going seventy-five miles per hour. 

If they had been mortal, the crash would have killed them. It certainly killed the moose. 

Percy forgot what happened the moment that the moose hit. Pain blanked out his mind. His vision swam in and out of focus but he was aware of something hot on his feet and an extreme, crushing pain in his chest. He blinked to clear his vision and immediately wanted to go back to before. The moose’s head was in the car, broken through the windshield, and three of the prongs on its antler disappeared into his chest. Every breath was a struggle. His legs were so hot and there was something pinning them down. 

But there was something more pressing than all of that. 

Percy looked over at the driver’s side of the car. His heart stopped. There was Luke, pinned to the seat by the other antler. The antler was deeper impaled into Luke’s chest than in Percy’s. Luke’s eyes were closed and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. His chest didn’t move. 

Percy whimpered. He forced his arms up and gripped the antler. With a glance at Luke, Percy yanked the antler out of his chest. He couldn’t stop the groan of pain. Dark rivers of blood soaked through his shirt. Percy looked to Luke again. 

Now that the antler wasn’t supported by both of them, the moose’s head was drooping down. It was more deeply embedded than Percy first thought because it was dragging Luke down with it. Luke still wasn’t breathing. 

Percy blinked to clear his vision, unable to tell if it was rain or tears blurring his vision. He needed to get his legs free before he could help Luke. Where was their nectar and ambrosia? In the trunk, right? They never used it. Percy couldn’t remember seeing it since they packed it six months ago. Being as careful as he could so as to not hurt Luke more, Percy moved the moose’s head so that he could see what the fuck was on his legs. When he did move the animal enough to see, Percy’s brain short circuited for a moment. It was the car’s engine that was on his legs, currently burning the flesh from his bones and crushing his feet. 

Percy stretched toward the passenger door and rolled down the window. It took a tremendous amount of effort and the antlers threatened to impale his guts. When the window was rolled down, Percy stretched until he could grip the top of the frame with both hands. He took a deep breath. This was going to suck. 

He pulled himself out of the car through the window and dropped onto the hard asphalt. It pushed the air out of his lungs. Percy wanted to curl up but he couldn’t. He had to...to check on Luke. And get him out of the car. Percy swallowed. He pulled the rain from the sky and used it to heal his legs. Riptide, ever in his pocket, was easy enough to uncap and cut through the plaster cast on his leg. Only one week left and it would have been completely healed. The engine had crushed both of his legs, broken the bones within. 

Healing enough to drag himself around to the trunk was a slow, slow process. Saltwater was better for this sort of thing, and the damage was bigger than usual. He couldn’t get the trunk unlocked. Percy screamed when he hauled himself to his feet. He leaned against the trunk and tried to ignore the sharp, twisting pain like rose vines growing up from his feet to his thighs. _Ignore it_ , he told himself, _just ignore it_. His whole body trembled as he lifted one arm and the pain of putting all his weight on his feet made him almost pass out. Two punches was all it took to get through the metal of the trunk lid and into the trunk. Percy dug around, cutting up his bicep on the twisted metal, until he found the first aid kit. He couldn’t get the kit through the hole, so he had to dig through that for the substances that would save their lives. 

Every second that passed felt like agony. Nevermind the physical pain, Percy was praying to every god he’d ever even _heard_ of that Luke would be alright. Finally, his hand closed on the canteen of nectar. He pulled it out, scraping the sides against the hole in the trunk; but it was out. Then he dove back in for the ambrosia. He found the bag of little cake, ripped it open, and shoved it into his mouth. His legs healed immediately and warmth ran through Percy so sweetly that he almost passed out from the shock of no longer being in pain. 

Percy took the canteen to the drivers side and was immediately faced with another problem. The door was smashed in. He didn’t hesitate to rip it off its hinges, flinging the crushed metal away. 

Luke slumped forward, his own weight pushing the antler prongs deeper into his chest. The steering wheel was badly misshapen and dug into Luke’ thighs. 

Percy straightened Luke and wondered if it would be easier to get Luke out of the car or to move the moose off of him. The tears were back and he sniffled. He couldn’t waste time debating. “I’m sorry,” Percy said and didn’t recognize his own voice. Riptide was on the other side of the car and hadn’t yet reappeared in Percy’s pocket. Percy went around to the front of the car where the moose’s back half was hanging out, gripped a leg, and pulled hard. Percy pulled the moose until its antlers got stuck on the windshield. That would have to be good enough. 

He returned to Luke’s side just in time to see Luke slowly sliding off the end of the antlers and flop limply back onto the seat. The hole in Luke’s chest was frightening and so was the blood that poured out of it. And so was the fact that Luke still wasn’t breathing. 

Percy dragged Luke out of the car and onto the snow at the side of the road. Everything was cold and wet, he realized suddenly. They were so isolated that there weren’t even telephone wires to follow back to civilization or to an emergency box. Percy whimpered again. The snow around them turned red. Percy uncapped the canteen and poured some nectar down Luke’s throat. 

He couldn’t tell if Luke swallowed so he attacked the wound from the outside, pouring more nectar directly into the wound. Was it doing anything? Anything at all? Percy rubbed at his eyes with his hands but his vision only blurred red from the blood he smeared across his face. What should he do? CPR would normally seem like a good idea but the place he was supposed to put his hands was where Luke’s wound was. Did it stop bleeding? Was that because it was healing or because Luke’s blood wasn’t flowing anymore? 

Percy poured the last little bit of nectar down Luke’s throat. This time he used his powers to force Luke to swallow. “Don’t leave me again. Please don’t leave me again. Gods, Luke, don’t leave me,” Percy cried as he stroked Luke’s white blond hair. There were bits of glass in it. He rocked back and forth, tears leaving icy tracks down his face. 

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the rain came down harder. It felt like bullets on Percy’s skin, even the places that were covered by clothing. He swung a leg over Luke’s hips and leaned over him, shielding him from the needling rain. “Wake up. Please wake up. Please, please, please, Luke.” 

Between the hard rain and Percy’s attention focused on Luke, he almost missed the swordpoint that pressed into the back of his neck. “I finally found you.” 

Percy didn’t respond. He searched Luke’s pale face. No signs of life. Maybe this was Fate. Six good months and then death. Percy could accept that. Being with Luke was the happiest he’s ever been. Even when things were bad. He took Luke’s cold hand in his and kissed his knuckles. 

“I’ve been tracking you down for years, Percy Jackson,” the voice continued. 

“That isn’t my name,” Percy said quietly. 

“What?” The stunned tone would have been funny if it had been in another context. If Luke wasn’t dead. 

“I’m not Percy Jackson.” 

There was a pause. “You can’t trick me!” 

“Look at my license,” Percy suggested. If he was going to die, then he would do it as Percy Jastellan, Luke’s husband. He felt the stranger fish his wallet from his back pocket and still didn’t move. He knew what the license said, had read it so many times in those first few days. It seemed like he couldn’t stop looking at it. The license listed his address as in Union Creek, Oregon. He was twenty-one. He wore contacts to drive. His hair was gray, his natural eyes were blue. And he was 180lbs, which he used to be before his anxiety dropped him down to 130. He was 6’1, which was the only true thing on it. 

None of that mattered because Luke wasn’t breathing and his bleeding had stopped. 

The stranger read the license. It was a real license so there was no way that the stranger could say Percy was making it all up. After a very, very long silence, the stranger said, “I think...I think I made a mistake, Claymore.” 

Who the fuck was Claymore? Was there another person here? 

“It seems so, Alabaster. This is a real license,” a second voice answered. 

Percy hoped that when he died, he could go to therapy for a while before they were reborn. He had a promise to keep, after all. “Why are you looking for him?” 

“He’s a murderer. He killed my siblings.” 

That would have to be unpacked later. “Do you have a cell phone?” Percy asked. He was slowly going numb. 

“Um. No,” the first voice, Alabaster, answered. The swordpoint was withdrawn. 

“Do you have a car?” 

“No,” Alabaster said again. 

Both of those things were strange enough that Percy took a deep inhale through his nose. He smelled magic and...rabbits? A son of Hecate? Percy had never heard of the Titaness having anything other than daughters. “Can you help at all?” Percy asked. 

The rain suddenly stopped. Not in the usual way that rain stops, but it froze in the air. A man appeared before them, kneeling in the snow so that he was eye level with Percy. His eyes were bright, bright blue. “He can’t, but I can.” 

Percy met Hermes eyes and asked, “You aren’t going to do something stupid like turn him into a tree, are you?” 

Hermes’ eyes glittered with amusement. His expression was sorrowful but not in the way that it was the first time he lost Luke. “The problem with nectar and ambrosia is that they barely work on Luke due to something he ate years ago. There’s only one thing that can heal him, Percy.” A brilliant golden apple appeared in Hermes’ hand, glowing with a faint luminescence. 

Percy had to restrain himself from lunging for the apple of immortality. He forced himself to be calm as he asked, “What do you want in exchange for it?” 

“Take good care of my son,” Hermes said simply. “I’ll forgive you for the moose, since that was actually his fault.” Those blue eyes flickered to the stranger behind Percy. 

Percy twisted his head around to look. The boy who stood there looked the same age as Percy himself, with brown hair and green eyes. He looked a little too much like Percy used to for Percy’s liking. And he was frozen in time, the ghostly figure of a man beside him. They meant nothing to Percy. He faced Hermes again. “Why was the moose his fault?” 

“Alabaster doesn’t like you, Percy. He wanted his mother to keep fighting after the war and was exiled from Camp Half-Blood before he could corrupt more of his surviving siblings,” Hermes said with an annoyed glare. “Will you take good care of my son?” 

“I will,” Percy promised. 

Hermes handed him the apple. 

Percy used his bare hands to break the apple into bite-sized pieces. Despite looking like it was made of solid gold, the apple seemed to be a regular apple. He put a piece on Luke’s tongue and then some snow in his mouth to use as water to wash it down. He repeated the process a few times, until half of the apple was gone. His anxiety grew as Luke remained unresponsive. 

Then the hole in Luke’s chest closed. Luke opened his eyes. He took a huge breath. 

The rain started again. 

“Percy?” Luke’s voice was hoarse. He raised a hand and cupped Percy’s cheek. 

Percy couldn’t even speak. He just sobbed. Fresh tears ran down his face, only making him colder. 

“Hey, why are you crying?” 

“You were dead,” Percy said. He trembled violently, adrenaline and cold tormenting him in equal measure. “You were dead, Luke. You left me again.” 

For the first time, Luke seemed to notice that they were both covered in blood. And that they were outside. “The moose,” he muttered. “How am I alive?” 

“Your dad…” Percy trailed off when he realized that Hermes was gone. He twisted around and saw that Alabaster and Claymore were gone too. Darling looked the same as she always did. The only signs that something had gone wrong were the skidmarks on the road, the dead moose on the shoulder of the road, and the door that Percy had ripped off. “Your dad fixed Darling.” 

Luke sat up. There were holes in his shirt and blood on his skin but his skin was unblemished beneath all of that. His eyes were wide, pupils narrow pinpricks, and he looked like he was in shock. He wrapped his arms around Percy and held him for a moment. Then he said, “Well, I’m glad to be back but it’s really, really cold. I don’t think my balls are ever going to drop again.” 

This startled a laugh out of Percy, but it still sounded something like a sob. He got up on legs that felt like jello and slung his arm around Luke’s waist. His wallet! And Riptide! Percy patted his pockets with his free hand; the pen and his wallet were in their proper places. 

They walked to the car and Luke slid into the passenger’s seat without a word. Once the door was closed, Percy dried them both off. He focused hard and lifted the blood from their clothes too. Then he drove them away from the scene of the accident and to the nearest hotel. 

Percy did not let Luke out of his sight for so much as a second. He walked into the hotel lobby with his arm through Luke’s and asked for a room with a single bed. Their backpacks were slung over their shoulders. He dug through Luke’s back pocket for his wallet and paid for their room. 

Luke shivered against Percy, and kept his face pressed into the crook of Percy’s neck. He seemed to have exhausted his entire sense of humor with that comment about his balls because he had been silent and clingy since then. 

Up in their room, they dropped their backpacks, and then Percy herded Luke into the bathroom. It wasn’t the most upscale place they’d ever stayed but the shower was big enough for both of them. “Shower,” Percy ordered as he began stripping. He moved fast, trying to cover up how much he was shaking. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off and they were safe from moose and demititans hunting them, Percy felt the full force of his fear. Luke was _dead. Again._

They stripped naked, got into the shower. Percy turned the water so hot that steam rose from it. He wrapped his arms around Luke’s neck and pressed flush against him, burying his face into Luke’s neck. If Luke had stayed dead, how long would it take for his scent to fade from Percy’s skin? The thought made him whine. 

Luke hesitated before slowly returning them embrace, his hands coming to find the small of Percy’s back. His whole body shook. He rubbed his cheek against Percy’s hair. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore,” Luke admitted quietly. 

Percy made a noise of despair. He clung tighter to Luke and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I do want you. I was so scared. I’m sorry for being like that. Don’t leave me again.” 

“I won’t leave you again,” Luke promised, voice low and sad. 

“Where did you go? When...when you died,” Percy asked, afraid of the answer. They still didn’t know if this counted as rebirth. What if Luke got to the Isles of the Blest before Percy? What if he didn’t get there at all? 

“I didn’t really go anywhere. It was just cold and wet.” A few moments went by before Luke shivered again. Then he sobbed. His nails dug into Percy’s skin. “I was so cold.” 

Percy could imagine that it was similar to the time he was in the icy Alaskan waters. He didn’t say this, though, because bringing it up seemed selfish. He let Luke cry until he cried himself out long enough for Percy to turn the water off. As they got out of the shower, Percy held Luke’s hand. He dried them off instantly. Exhaustion prompted him to the bed without stopping to dress. They were lucky that the room was warm because there was no way that Percy was letting go of Luke to go turn the heat on. 

Luke trembled even after Percy pulled the covers over them and curled up against Luke’s back. He clutched one of the pillows to his chest. “I don’t want to die again,” Luke whispered. 

Percy nosed the back of Luke’s neck. He fumbled for Luke’s hand and held it. “Were you going to tell me that ambrosia and nectar don’t work on you?” 

Luke sighed. “They do work on me. Just not very fast or very well.” 

“Luke, I didn’t know what to do. If your dad hadn’t showed up…” Percy sniffed. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his free hand. 

Luke kissed Percy’s palm. “I’m sorry. I...was hoping that I wouldn’t need the apples anymore.” Luke sighed, breath ghosting across Percy’s skin. “You remember Atlas?” 

“Kind of hard to forget him,” Percy mumbled. 

Luke snorted. “The reason I agreed to free him was because he could take the golden apples whenever he wanted. Ladon minded him. Atlas was going to find someone to take my place holding the sky and then he would get me an apple so that I’d recover from the ordeal. Except he didn’t give it to me and I was so busy taking care of Annabeth that I didn’t have time to steal it. After Thalia killed me, Alabaster took the apple from Atlas’ pocket and fed it to me.” 

Percy stiffened. “Alabaster?” he echoed. 

Luke sighed again. “He was one of my boyfriends.” 

Percy’s mind was reeling. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Maybe it was a different Alabaster. But Percy didn’t believe in coincidences. “Is he the son of a Titaness witch?” 

Now it was Luke who stiffened. He swallowed audibly. “Did you meet him?” 

“He tried to kill me,” Percy said. “I don’t know where he went. I guess your dad got rid of him and that...Claymore thing he was traveling with.” 

Luke rolled over onto his stomach so that he could look Percy in the face. “What are you talking about?” 

“Alabaster caused the accident today, Luke. He magicked the moose in front of the car.” Percy could still remember the first and only time that Luke had actually hurt him, really truly hurt him, on purpose and not while they were sparring. It was another fight, on board the Princess Andromeda, and Luke had cut Percy’s leg open just above his knee, a cut that went to the bone. That was the one time that Luke ever intentionally hurt Percy. He’d never hit Percy before but suddenly Percy was afraid of being hit. “Your dad said he was trying to kill me because they didn’t let him into Camp Half-Blood and he was angry about something I did.” 

A low growl rumbled from Luke’s throat. Then, just as quickly as his anger appeared, it vanished. He sighed and pressed his face into the pillow. Luke stayed like that for a few long moments before turning his face toward Percy. Their noses were centimeters apart, their lips almost touching. “He really hated you. I didn’t think he’d go after you once the war was over, though.” Luke’s breath tasted like blood and apples. 

“Why did he hate me?” Percy asked quietly. His heart pounded fast. He felt frozen in place, direction unsure. Should he press forward and close that tantalizing space between their lips? Percy hadn’t kissed anyone in a very long time and he missed it and he liked Luke. Or should he retreat, put some space between them so that he didn’t lead Luke on? Percy wasn’t sure that he still cared about what Luke might do to him. 

Luke hummed. “Mostly because you were the Olympian’s champion.” He brought one hand up and rested his knuckles against Percy’s chest, right over his heart. His skin was chilly. 

That checked out with what Hermes said. Percy couldn’t remember ever seeing Alabaster and wondered if he gave the Romans a run for their money more than the Greeks. He wasn’t a good person, though. Not if he was willing to kill Luke just to get at Percy. Then again, he hadn’t even seemed to notice Luke. Would he recognize his ex boyfriend? Only Percy, Annabeth, Gover, and Hestia had been there when Luke died. “Why did you want him?” 

“I liked his dark hair and green eyes. His power was very attractive too.” Luke didn’t move but it suddenly felt like there was less space between them. “He’s a good kid. He just wants his mom and siblings to have the respect they deserve.” 

Jealousy was poison in Percy’s veins and if he hadn’t known it before, he definitely knew it now. Even though he always knew that something mundane and mortal - although a moose being magicked into the road wasn’t either of those things - could happen to them, today really drilled it into Percy’s head that their lives could end at any moment. There was so much left unsaid the first times Luke died. “He’s kind of pale,” Percy said petulantly, because he was still thinking about how to approach the topic. 

“I can’t win them all.” Luke smiled faintly; something Percy felt rather than saw. 

“He held a sword to the back of my neck.” It was a prime spot for paralyzation. “You weren’t breathing and your wounds weren’t healing and it was so cold and I was going to let him kill me.” Percy forced himself to say the rest before he lost his courage. His chest felt light and constricted at the same time. “Because I would rather die than live without you, Luke.” 

Luke’s breath caught. He hooked his ankle around Percy’s ankle, reassurance that they weren’t going anywhere without each other. A statement like that might be scary for mortals but it was normal for demigods. The mortality rate was so high that if a partner died, it was unlikely to live long past their death. “What stopped him?” 

“He called me Percy Jackson and that isn’t my name.” Percy took a deep breath to settle his nerves. “I know we’re already married but...can we...can we be husbands? Like, in a relationship? I don’t want to have sex. At least not right now. Maybe not ever. But I want...I want to spend the rest of my life with you even if it ends tonight and I think you should kiss me, please.” 

Luke’s hand came up and cupped Percy’s cheek. That last little bit of distance between them vanished as Luke pressed his lips to Percys. His lips were as cool as his hands, the chill of death reluctant to let Luke out of its clutches. The kiss was firm and sure, no room for doubts. 

Percy whimpered as Luke kissed him, brought his hands up to card through Luke’s soft hair. He needed this affirmation more than he needed to breathe; needed to know that Luke was alive and safe and that Luke was as dependent on Percy as he was on Luke. A wild, fierce affection for Luke swelled within him and Percy kissed Luke for all that he was worth. 

Luke responded with the same eager desperation that made his hands shake. He laced their fingers together, squeezing so hard that the tiny bones in Percy’s hand ached. The trembling that had stopped so recently started again. He kissed like he wanted it to last forever. 

Oxygen was an annoying necessity that had them both pulling back, if only for a moment. They panted, staring at each other in the dark, then pressed forward for another long kiss. 

When they parted again, Luke said, “If we keep kissing like that I’m going to get hard. So I think we should...be less devastatingly sexy.” He swallowed audibly. 

Despite himself, Percy laughed. He kissed Luke sweetly, chastely. “Better? Or should we stop kissing entirely?” 

Luke made a rumbling noise in his throat like a purr. “Better.” He kissed the corner of Percy’s mouth. “I still want you to see a therapist.” 

“Okay.” 

“I probably shouldn’t be kissing you.” 

Percy pulled back, stunned and hurt. He opened his mouth to say something - 

“I’ve wanted to for so long. But you didn’t seem to want to.” Luke quickly kissed Percy again. “I don’t want you to kiss me just because I died.” 

Luke’s words were a balm that smoothed over Percy’s hurt. He knew all about kissing someone because of a near death experience. “I’ll talk to a therapist,” Percy promised again. “Can we keep kissing?” 

“Yeah,” Luke agreed, already leaning in for another one.  
  
  
  


Luke was better than the Internet when it came to finding the things and people that they needed. He guided Percy as he drove them through Idaho to Wyoming and into a big city. Well, Cheyenne was big if you’d never been to New York City. Really, a lot of these cities and towns they drove through were just quaint compared to Percy’s city. Luke directed him in front of a low brick building, where Percy carefully executed a parallel park. 

Luke hadn’t gotten behind the wheel since the accident. He lay curled in the back seat, loudly giving Percy directions. When Percy suggested that Luke get behind the wheel, Luke’s face had gone pale. “I can’t.” 

Percy left it at that. Now he sat in the car and looked up at the building that apparently held a person he was supposed to pour his heart out to. 

Luke popped over the back seat, kissed Percy behind his ear. “You've got this, baby. You’ve already got an appointment and we talked about what you’re going to say.” 

Percy took a deep breath. He gripped the steering wheel tightly. Being coached on what to say to your therapist would have been a bad thing if they weren’t demigods. A lot of the things that Percy needed to talk about had to do with the gods, so he needed a convincing lie. Luke had darkly suggested Percy say he was in a cult but cults didn’t go to war. Percy was officially part of a gang. At least that’s what he was going to tell his therapist. “You’re coming in, right?” 

“Yeah. I’ll be in the waiting room the whole time,” Luke promised. 

“Okay. Okay. I’ve got this. Alright.” Percy got out of the car. 

Luke climbed out after him. He held Percy’s hand as they walked into the building. He immediately scoped out a chair next to a stack of magazines. 

It helped that Luke was so relaxed. Percy checked himself in and only had to wait a few minutes to be called back. 

The therapist’s office wasn’t small but it was crowded. Mostly with large furniture; a desk, two chairs, an armchair, a couch. There was a bookshelf and a water cooler. The walls were a soothing green and had framed certificates hung up beside paintings of landscapes. 

“Hi, Percy. My name is Lauren,” the therapist told him. She was short and slender and looked like a child, far younger than Percy himself. Lauren wore a pinstripe business skirt and blazer over a white blouse. Her glasses had purple wire frames and her coppery red hair was pulled into a no-nonsense bun. 

“Hi,” he said, confused as he sat down on the couch because he was pretty sure that’s where you sat when you talked to a therapist. “Um.” 

“I’m thirty-four,” Lauren said with a knowing smile. She listed off her degrees and majors, which sounded impressive but didn’t mean a lot to Percy. “I am qualified and I hope that you can look past my appearance.” 

If there was one thing that Percy had learned - or should have learned by now - it was not to judge by appearances. “It isn’t a problem.” He reached for his pocket, fingers brushing against Riptide as he pulled out the green ribbon and wove it through his fingers. The edges were frayed and it was already becoming pretty worn. 

This caught Lauren’s attention. “Have you been to a therapist before?” 

“No. My, um, partner has,” Percy said. He wondered if he would ever be able to publicly call Luke his husband. 

“The handsome young man in the waiting room?” Lauren asked. 

Percy nodded. 

“Was it his idea that you come to therapy?” 

Percy nodded again. “I have...a lot of issues to work through. Lately I’ve been having a lot of intrusive thoughts and pretty bad anxiety.” He swallowed, nervous. It was hard enough talking to Luke about it. Lauren was a stranger and she was mortal. 

“Why don’t you tell me about it and we’ll go from there.” 

So Percy did. There was a lot that he had to leave out but the gist of his problems and traumas were fairly easy to explain in ways mortals would understand. Luke had assured Percy that as long as he wasn’t a danger to himself or others, Lauren wouldn’t tell anyone about what was said. 

It took a long time to explain enough to get to the crux of his current issue; which was this sudden fear of Luke raping him. Even thinking of it made him cringe because the logical part of Percy knew it wasn’t going to happen. But logic was hardly ever Percy’s master. 

Lauren’s suggestion was putting some space between them. 

“I tried that,” Percy said. 

“For how long?” 

Percy stared at her. He had no idea how long it had been. “A few weeks?” Before she could say anything else, he added, “I don’t want to put more space between us.” And he told her about the car accident and how they almost died and how he thought Luke was dead. He pulled down the collar of his shirt and showed her the three scars on his chest. They were round and thick. Luke had a thick line across his chest in the same spot. 

Lauren agreed that after an incident like that, they probably wouldn’t benefit from more space. Instead, she gave him some mental exercises. “Our time is almost up. I’d like to see you again tomorrow. Will that be okay for you?” 

“Yeah. Tomorrow will be fine.” Percy said goodbye and scheduled the appointment with the receptionist. He wasn’t sure how productive the therapy session had been and once they were outside, Percy told this to Luke. 

Luke laughed. “Percy, it takes more than one session. Give her the benefit of the doubt and some time to think about how to help.” He got into the back seat. 

Percy drove them to the closest hotel, only two blocks away. They got a room for the night.  
  
  
  


Percy went to see Lauren the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that, which he was informed was a Friday. “I’m not open on the weekends,” Lauren said with a small smile. “I’d like you to come back all of next week.” 

Percy hesitated. They’ve already been here for four days and he was itching to leave again. “I’ll talk to Luke about it,” Percy promised. 

“At least make an appointment for Monday,” Lauren encouraged. 

“Alright. I can do that.” Three more days wouldn’t be a big deal, would it? Percy made the appointment and left the office with Luke. “She wants me to come back every day next week.” 

Luke nodded, unsurprised. They walked across the street to the park. The snow on the ground didn’t deter them from going to the swing set and sitting on the cool plastic. “Do you feel like Lauren is helping?” 

Percy thought about it. “I don’t know. I think it’s too soon to tell.” He pumped his legs, urging the swing higher. The chains were cold against his bare hands. 

“If you don’t like her, we can find a different therapist. You aren’t stuck with her,” Luke said. He built up speed and then stretched out, letting momentum slow him down. 

For a few minutes they swung in silence. The swings creaked and there was the sound of traffic passing. It was a nice little park with some short trails to follow and most importantly, it had good swings. “How long are we staying here?” 

Luke pursed his lips in thought. “We can leave whenever you want.” 

Percy narrowed his eyes. “Yeah. But how long are we staying here?” 

Luke side-eyed him. “If Lauren is helping, then maybe we could stay for a few weeks.” 

“How long is a few weeks?” Percy asked suspiciously. 

“A month? Maybe more? Maybe less?” Luke sighed. “If you say the word, we’ll leave and never come back. I just want to give you a chance to benefit from therapy.” 

“You want to stay for a whole month?” Percy asked. The thought made his spine feel how nails on a chalkboard made his ears feel. 

“I want you to get better and find healthy ways of dealing with your trauma and all of the soldier training they put you through.” 

Percy tipped backwards until he was almost completely upside down. He stared at the snowy landscape with a frown. He knew that his brow was furrowed and he was going to get even more premature wrinkles. Luke was married to an old man. Percy sat up and slowed his swing. His hand shot out and grabbed the chain of Luke’s swing. 

The swing jerked but even with Luke’s weight on it, Percy was strong enough to haul them together. Luke gave him a confused, questioning look. 

“Kiss me,” Percy said. His voice was steady, and didn't betray his desperation at all. He leaned toward Luke. 

Luke met him halfway. His lips were warm; a pleasant contrast to the cold air. 

Percy closed his eyes against the thoughts of how Luke had to want more than him, and kissed his husband. 

They kissed until Luke’s stomach growling made them part. “Let’s go get dinner,” Luke suggested with a sheepish smile. 

“How about Chinese?” 

“Sounds good.”  
  
  
  


They moved into a hotel that allowed for long-term renting. This was nicer than what they had before. That being said, it was only marginally nicer. 

They unpacked for the first time in six months. Percy couldn’t believe that Luke had managed to fit so many clothes into his backpack. It helped, he supposed, that most of it was leggings. Luke owned one pair of jeans - Percy’s jeans - a pair of snow pants that he wore _over_ the leggings, the slacks from his wedding suit, and the short shorts with the butterflies on the butt pockets. Otherwise, everything was leggings. Some were plain, most had patterns. 

Luke was currently rocking baby blue leggings with a snowflake pattern on them. He’d acquired a matching blue cardigan to wear over his lavender sweater and wrapped the pastel rainbow scarf from Pride around his neck. He looked adorable and stylish and cute but Percy didn’t say any of that because he wasn’t sure if Luke would take offense. Instead, he settled for a neutral, “You look good.” 

Luke beamed at him every time. 

That happy smile made Percy’s heart skip a beat and a fluttery feeling in his chest like someone replaced his organs with butterflies. As the days passed, it seemed incredibly stupid to Percy to believe that he didn’t have romantic feelings for Luke. When he developed them, Percy wasn’t sure. Where did the line between friendship and partnership blur? 

Provided that the weather was good, they walked to the park after therapy. Usually they had it to themselves but sometimes a family would be there, or teenagers goofing off. The swings were taken today. 

Luke hung upside down on the monkey bars. “Your hair is getting long again,” he said. 

Percy hummed. “It’s still coming in gray.” He stood on the ladder, watching the mortal teenagers. He knew he was staring but he couldn’t help it. It felt like they were from a completely different planet. What were their lives like? 

Luke said something. 

It took Percy a few minutes to tear his eyes away from the teens and focus on Luke. “What?” 

“Do you want me to cut it?” 

Percy stared blankly. 

“Your hair, babe,” Luke elaborated. 

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.” His hair was long enough to get in his eyes and Percy didn’t like it much. 

“Whatcha thinking?” 

Percy hauled himself onto the bars and sat with his legs dangling between them, looking down at Luke. “Sometimes I forget that I’m…” he waved a hand. “Technically still a kid.” 

Luke reached up and gripped the bars. He looked like a very pastel and handsome sloth. “I get it. Sometimes it feels like I’ve always been an adult.” 

“I went to boarding schools nine months out of the year, every year since I was six. As soon as I was old enough, I had to get summer jobs to pay for my stepdad’s gambling addiction. And then Camp happened. I feel like I was robbed.” Belatedly, Percy realized that Luke wasn’t the one to complain to about a shitty childhood. 

But Luke nodded in agreement. He unhooked his legs and held on with both hands. “Did you talk to Lauren about it?” 

“Not yet,” Percy said. There were more urgent things to discuss. 

Luke hauled himself up between the bars and sat with his knees to Percy’s knees. “Do you have a problem with me seeing Lauren too?” 

Percy blinked, surprised. “For therapy?” 

Luke nodded. “She won’t tell me what goes on in your sessions or vice versa.” His shoulders were tensed. 

Percy appraised Luke for a few moments. This, he suspected, was what Lauren would call a cry for help. And far be it for Percy to deny Luke help. “I don’t mind.” 

Luke’s shoulders relaxed. “Cool. I’ll make an appointment tomorrow then.” 

Percy leaned forward and kissed Luke. He straightened and twisted his wedding ring. “Why doesn’t my age bother you? We’ve got a seven year gap. I’m not even legal.” 

Luke looked surprised. “Well the only illegal thing I plan to do with you, we’ve already done.” He held up his hand, letting his wedding ring catch the light. 

“Right.” 

“And as far as I know, I’m the oldest pure blooded Greek demigod that isn’t immortal or in hiding or dead. So I made my peace with having younger partners a long time ago.” 

Now it was Percy’s turn to be surprised. “Wait. Wait. You’ve been hooking up with demigods this whole time.” 

“Yeah, but not all of them are Greek and none of them are pure blooded Greeks. Everyone we’ve encountered has either been from another set of gods entirely or are also legacies of other gods.” 

Percy’s head spun. “I don’t understand….How can you be the oldest?” 

Luke pursed his lips. “The first time I went to Olympus, I was fifteen. The grain goddess was there, with some other Olympians. They didn’t pay much attention to me, so I eavesdropped. She said, _‘the last batch of demigods is rotten. We need to start over and hope that this harvest yields better results.’”_

Percy couldn’t breathe. “That’s why no one is more than two years older than me, isn’t it? That’s why we’re all the same age?” 

Luke nodded. “I was the last one of my generation to die.” 

Sadness welled up in Percy like a fountain. Tears tracked cold lines down his cheeks. His crying was short lived, only for those who were lost and for the cruelty of their world.  
  
  
  


Percy sat at the table of their hotel room and stared at the blank piece of lined notebook paper. It was college ruled paper, which was all Lauren had, but she assured him that it didn’t matter how messy his handwriting was just so long as it was legible to him. 

Luke got out of the shower and draped himself across Percy’s back. “Whatcha doing?” 

Percy turned his face to give Luke a quick peck, then resumed staring at the paper. “Lauren wants me to start keeping a journal and writing down my life.” 

“She wants me to do that too,” Luke said. A drop of water fell from his curls and onto the table. He wiped it away. “I dunno what it is about old people and journaling.” 

Percy hummed. 

“Do you think you’ll keep it up?” Luke asked. 

Percy hesitated before answering, “I think so.” He leaned back, fitting his neck against the curve of Luke’s shoulder. “Did you ever keep writing once you filled up that journal?” 

“How do you know about that?” 

“Chiron keeps it in his office. I saw it when we were looking for the orientation tape,” Percy admitted. 

“I should have burned that thing. How did you know it was mine? Did you read it?” 

“I read a few pages. But it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already seen.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“I, um, had a vision. Of when you met Annabeth.” 

Luke was silent for a moment, processing. He traced the moonlace tattoo on Percy’s wrist. “Kelli said that you spied a lot in your dreams. The Crooked One noticed it too.” 

Percy put his hand over Luke’s. “Not on purpose. And….and it was only on you.” 

“That’s creepy,” Luke decided. He laced their fingers together. 

“I’m sorry.” Percy knew how it felt to be spied on and it was a lousy feeling. At the time he hadn’t felt guilty about it, but that was during war. It had seemed like a huge, if somewhat confusing, advantage. 

“No. I didn’t mean you. It just reminds me of the Oracle powers.” Percy could read between that line well enough. After what happened to May, it wasn’t surprising that Luke didn’t care for Oracles and their powers. “I’m gonna run up to the store. Do you want anything?” 

“Sour skittles and coke?” Percy asked. He twisted around for a kiss before Luke left. 

Luke lingered for a long moment. Then he pulled away, put his shoes on, and was out the door. 

Percy felt the distance stretch between them like it was a physical thing. That could be an actual thing, if the Fates tied their life strings together. Percy sighed and stood up. He stretched, going through a routine that Lauren had given him for when he felt like he needed to settle. Whether it worked or not, Percy couldn’t really tell, but it felt good to move. Inaction was never really his thing. Once he was stretched sufficiently, Percy pulled out his ribbon. The ends were beginning to seriously fray and it was wrinkled beyond straightening. Percy tied it into a bow. 

Twenty minutes later, Luke returned to their hotel room. He had a plastic shopping bag slung on his arm. “I come bearing gifts,” he announced. 

Percy smiled. 

Luke presented Percy with the requested snack items, telling him, “You’re going to ruin the enamel on your teeth, baby.” 

Percy tore open the pack of sour skittles and popped some in his mouth. His mouth immediately began to water as the sour flavor burned off his taste buds. “Thank you for enabling me.” 

Luke laughed. Then he pulled something else from within the bag. It was a leatherbound journal, deep red in color and embossed with a tree on the cover. “And this is for you. I thought...well, it’s nice to write in something that feels nice and that spiral bound notebook isn’t going to last with all the traveling we do.” Luke’s face turned a delicate shade of pink. 

Percy set his skittles aside and wiped his fingers on his jeans. He reached for the notebook and carefully opened it. It felt expensive and weighty in his hands, like something that should hold only the best written works and not his pathetic, miserable life. He set the book in his lap and tipped his face up. 

Luke met him in another lingering kiss. He very gently ran his knuckles along Percy’s jaw and down his neck. When he pulled away, his expression was tender. 

Percy’s heart swelled with feelings. He glanced away and noticed that there was something else in the bag. “What else did you get?” 

Luke showed him an identical leatherbound notebook, except this one was a deep violet and had a hummingbird on the cover. “One for me. I stopped writing when I was fifteen and Hal’s journal filled up. Lauren wants me to anyway and I thought...I should probably start it back up.” The blush hadn’t gone away. 

“Cool,” Percy said with a smile. He popped more sour skittles into his mouth. Then he turned back to the notebook, picked up his pencil, and started to write. 

_Look, I didn’t want to be a halfblood._

It was a long time before Percy was finished writing. When he finally put his pencil down, his hand was cramped. He stretched again and stood up. It felt so good to straighten his knees. His jaws split in a yawn and Percy made his way to Luke’s bed. “Can I sleep with you tonight?” 

After only a few weeks, Percy was back in bed with Luke. If they’d been having sex, he might have considered himself to be pretty damn weak. But they weren’t. Luke never tried anything inappropriate. Percy had intrusive thoughts about it less often. More or less. Sometimes, Percy would get up in the middle of the night or right before he fell asleep and go back to his own bed. He never knew what he’d do until it happened. 

Luke took it with far more grace than Percy would have if the tables had been turned. “Of course.” He set his book on the side table. This one was about a witch or something from The Wizard Of Oz. 

Percy climbed into bed beside him and settled down. He lay on his side, facing Luke, not touching him. There were limits, even when his body ached to touch Luke. It was all fine and dandy during the day. They could kiss and touch all they wanted but night came and then it was into bed and Percy found himself shying away from any contact even when he really, really wanted it. 

Luke was extremely good at respecting Percy’s space. He didn’t show even the slightest bit of disappointment, ever. Not so much as a twitch to indicate that it bothered him. Luke turned out the light and settled on his back or his stomach depending on the night. He closed his eyes and kept all limbs to himself. 

Percy didn’t notice it right away because Luke was sneaky, but sometimes hours later, either just after Percy fell asleep, or just before he woke up, he would feel Luke’s side of the bed shift as Luke rolled onto his side so that they were facing each other. Then he would hear Luke’s voice whisper something to him. The first time, it was _‘obicham te.’_ A few moments after that, Luke would roll away again however he’d been laying before. Still not touching Percy. And he would finally sleep or feign sleep as though he hadn’t been the one to wake up first. 

Percy had no idea what it meant but Luke kept whispering to him when he thought that Percy was still asleep. Either he was saying different things or saying the same thing in a different language every night. Something made him forgo asking. He didn’t think he was supposed to hear whatever it was that Luke said to him. 

_“Rwy'n dy garu di,”_ Luke whispered that night.  
  
  
  


Luke made his appointments with Lauren right after Percy’s so that they were back to back. It was Percy’s turn to sit in the waiting room. It was painted a warm light brown like creamed coffee. The chairs were plenty cushioned but the armrests were hard, which made slouching and lounging a pain in the spine. In one corner stood a fountain with a filter that hummed loud enough to be heard across the room. At the base of the fountain was a pool and at the bottom were shiny copper pennies. 

On the receptionist’s desk was a ten gallon fish tank that held a single male betta fish. The betta was housed with dwarf frogs and though he never fought the frogs, he constantly complained about them. As soon as the betta realized that Percy could hear his thoughts, it told him that his name was Joe and then proceeded to complain about the frogs in his territory. 

Percy always did his best to look too busy reading to reply to the betta. The one good thing about being landlocked was that he rarely encountered fish and therefore didn’t have their voices constantly in his head. His reading material was a series of current magazines; Cosmopolitan, The Times, National Geographic, Highlights For Children, Better Homes And Gardens, Rolling Stone, and both Men and Women’s Health magazines. At first, Percy only picked out his favorites to read. But he realized pretty quickly that he would have to give in and read the rest if he wanted to be entertained during Luke’s two hour session. 

The receptionist was a girl maybe a year or two older than Percy. Her name was Joan, which she hated because it was an old fashioned name and so not in style. She was Lauren’s daughter and looked just like her except that Joan was about a foot taller and her red hair was wavy. “I get it from my dad,” she informed Percy one day. As far as her work ethic, Joan was a young adult working for her mother. She was constantly writing poetry on the job or texting on her phone and she always turned the radio to the rock station while it was just her and Percy in the waiting room. “Do you want a coffee?” she asked him. Because they were the last clients of the day, Joan was also prone to leaving the office for the coffee shop next door. 

“A hot chocolate?” Percy asked. He was reading Better Homes and Gardens, admiring the pictures of manicured lawns and wondering if he would ever want something like that. Of course, having a garden would mean settling down. He should ask Luke what ever happened to that moonlace clipping. 

Joan waved to show that she heard and then she was off to get their drinks. 

This was their third week of being in Cheyenne, Wyoming. January had turned into February. Percy was resolutely ignoring the Cosmopolitan magazine and was secretly hoping that if he read slow enough, he wouldn’t have the chance to read that one. After three weeks, Percy thought that Lauren was helping him. He had more exercises to do - some physical but mostly mental - when his brain waged war against him. Luke seemed to be doing better too. 

What Percy hadn’t been expecting with therapy was that it would make him irritated and tired and leave him feeling drained or like his emotions were a livewire. He had so much to work through and it usually wasn’t pleasant to relive. He was learning a lot about himself and the people he knew, and he didn’t like a lot of the realizations. Then there were the days that he left Lauren’s office feeling on top of the world because he finally conquered something or realized something about himself. 

Joan returned with his hot chocolate. “You’re buying the next one,” she said. 

Percy hoped that she wasn’t flirting with him. He accepted the beverage with a small thank you, then went back to his magazine. He finished his drink and the magazine before Luke’s two hours were up. He made a quick trip to the bathroom, and stopped by Joan’s desk to bug her. “Do you like working here?” 

Joan looked up from the computer. “It’s a job,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just doing it to pay for college, you know?” 

Percy shook his head. “I didn’t graduate high school.” 

Joan looked embarrassed. “Oh. Why not?” Then she added, “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to psychoanalyze you or anything. It’s so hard to make smalltalk with my mom’s patients.” 

Percy didn’t know how to answer her question. “It’s okay,” he said and went back to sit. He picked up a magazine at random that wasn’t the cosmo one and found himself reading about women’s health. Again. 

The look on Luke’s face when the door opened at the end of his session made Percy’s heart race with adrenaline. Luke looked the way he did when he summoned the pit scorpion to kill Percy, all those years ago. He wore the same expression of agony and anger. 

The expression should have been enough to warn Percy off, in hindsight. But it had been four hours of being in separate rooms and Luke was _usually_ affectionate after their sessions. Percy got to his feet and went to kiss Luke. 

Luke’s eyes flashed like lightning. “ _Don’t_ touch me,” he snarled and swept out of the room like a tempest. 

Percy recoiled in shock but Luke was already out the door. His heart had skipped a beat in fear. His head swung to Lauren, eyes wide and questioning. 

Lauren gave Percy a sympathetic look. “Just give him some space, Percy. Today’s session was...difficult.” 

“O-okay.” Percy took a moment to steel himself and then walked out. There was no sign of Luke. Percy didn’t see him across the street at the park, either. He hesitated, unsure of what to do. Where did Luke go? He felt like he did the first time he was sent to a boarding school, when he was six years old and he had to spend the night without his mom in the next room. Percy heard a whine, then realized it was coming from him. He shook himself. “Get a fucking grip,” he scolded himself. “Don’t be a baby.” It wasn’t like he needed Luke to be at his side every second of every day. 

Since Percy had no idea where Luke was, he walked to the coffee shop next door for some comfort food. He had the Hermes Express card in his wallet from the last time he walked up to the store alone so there was no need to worry about money. The cafe was decorated for both winter and Valentine’s Day, with hearts and snowflakes everywhere. Percy had forgotten about the holiday. Should he do something for Luke on Valentine’s Day? 

Percy was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t recognize the woman behind the counter until she greeted him. “Hello, Percy. It’s been a long time.” The woman had a middle eastern accent. 

Percy’s eyes widened at the sound of her voice. He was ripped from his thoughts. His hand went to his pocket automatically...but he hesitated to draw Riptide. Not just because they were in a crowded coffee shop. Percy didn’t want to fight monsters anymore. And she was technically his aunt. “Hi, Auntie Em.” 

They stared at each other for a long few moments. Medusa’s eyes and a stripe of brown skin were all that was visible. The rest of her was hidden by a veil. Now that he was paying attention, Percy could smell the snake musk of her hair. Before, distraction and the overwhelming scents of food had covered it up. 

“Um, could I get a lemon muffin?” Percy plucked a water bottle from the cooler beside him and set it on the counter. “And this?” 

Medusa rang up Percy’ order and got his lemon muffin from the display case. She slid the receipt across the counter with the plate. 

Percy shoved the receipt into the pocket that _didn’t_ hold Riptide, then he took his muffin and water. “Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome,” Medusa said. 

Percy left the coffee shop and walked to the park. He sat down on a bench where he could watch the coffee shop and eat his muffin. Medusa didn’t appear by the time he finished the muffin. He knew that she hadn’t made the muffin because her cooking was sublime and the muffin was only good quality. Percy considered what to do about a monster being so close to his therapist’s office. He could wait for her shift to end and slay her. He could find Luke and they could skip town. It occurred to him that Mesuda might have done something to Luke - like turn him into a statue - but he didn’t feel like it was likely. Once upon a time, Annabeth had had a sixth sense for when Luke was alive. Now, Percy felt sure that he had it too. He just knew that Luke was alive. There was, of course, a third option. Percy could just leave her alone. 

They were only planning on spending one more week here and Medusa was obviously trying to make a life for herself. Why should he disrupt them all when there wasn’t really a need? Unless she attacked them. But there hadn’t been any surprise in her eyes as far as Percy could see. Maybe she’d already known that he was there. As Percy sat and thought about it, he wondered if Luke and Medusa were friends. Luke had known a lot of monsters thanks to his ties with Kronos. 

He would talk to Luke about it. Depending on how Luke was doing when Percy got back to the hotel room. If he was there at all. Percy tried to shove down the anxiety that welled up at the thought of Luke not being there. 

He needn’t have worried. Luke was in their hotel room. Even though the door was closed and the shower turned on, Percy knew he was there. His scent was fresh. So Percy relaxed on the bed and wrote in his journal about seeing Medusa and Luke’s weird behavior. 

Luke was in the bathroom for a long, long time. When he came out, he went straight to his bed and disappeared beneath the covers. 

Percy tried to ignore the stab of pain in his chest. It was only afternoon but the curtains were drawn and the world outside was snowy. He set his journal down and slipped beneath the covers. He stared across the beds at the lump that was Luke and knew that Luke wasn’t asleep because Luke was on his side, facing away from Percy. Well, today seemed like a good day for a depression nap. 

It was hours later that Percy woke up. He had a headache and his mouth tasted weird. He rolled out of bed and to the bathroom, where he emptied his bladder and brushed his teeth. Then he got into the shower. The shower was quick. When he returned to the main room, he saw that Luke was awake. 

Luke stood at the window, looking out between the drawn curtains and out into the world. 

“Hey,” Percy said cautiously. 

There was a pause before Luke said, “Hey.” His voice sounded like he’d been screaming for hours. “I’m…” he swallowed, tried again. “I’m sorry for snapping at you.” 

“Are you okay?” Percy crept back to his bed. He kept his eyes on Luke like his husband was a wild animal about to bite. 

A half shrug. 

Percy took that as a no. “Do you wanna watch some cartoons with me?” 

Luke shook his head. “I’m gonna go back to bed. You can, though.” He didn’t turn away from the window until Percy had the tv turned on. Then he slipped back into bed. His face was splotchy, like he’d been doing some serious crying. Maybe he did. 

Percy watched cartoons well into the night. He would tell Luke about Medusa later. 

Luke didn’t move at all beneath the comforter.  
  
  
  


Percy really meant to tell Luke about Medusa but Luke seemed fragile and sharp, like broken glass. They still weren’t touching and Luke was silent unless asked a direct question. So Percy didn’t bring the monster up. 

He went into Lauren’s office and sat down in his usual spot. “My aunt works at the coffee shop next door.” 

Lauren looked surprised. “Oh?” 

“She, um, she wasn’t really in the gang. She got out a long time ago. But I met her once before and I...wasn’t very nice to her.” Percy stared at the crown molding, tracing it with his eyes. “I recently found out...that my dad raped her.” Wasn’t she the mother of Pegasus? Did that make the winged horse Percy’s half brother? Did that mean that Blackjack was his...niece? Was Percy related to everyone? “So there’s bad blood between us and I...I don’t want there to be. We don’t have to be friends or close or anything. I just want to be able to...make peace with her?” 

“What does your aunt want?” Lauren asked. 

Percy opened his mouth to say _vengeance_ , then closed his mouth. “I don’t know.” 

“How did your interaction with her go?” 

“Um...it was okay. We said hi and she took my order.” 

“It sounds like she isn’t holding a grudge. Of course, you caught her at work. Perhaps she would behave differently outside of work.” If only Lauren knew. She continued, “Maybe you could ask to meet for coffee and have a heart to heart?” 

Percy almost laughed. Almost. How could he explain that Medusa wasn’t likely to let him walk away from her a second time? Next time she got him alone, she was almost sure to kill him. “I'm not sure.” 

Lauren was nodding. She asked Percy about the homework she’d given him and from there, they moved on to other subjects. What to do about Medusa continued to nag at the back of Percy’s head but by the end of the session, he still hadn't decided. 

The second that the office door shut behind Luke, Percy left for the coffee shop next door. He burst in, causing the bell on the door to ring wildly, realized that he was drawing attention, and composed himself. 

Medusa was working the register again. Her eyes glanced up at him and then back to the customer in front of her. 

Percy got in line, bouncing nervously on his toes. When he got to the counter, he said, “Can I talk to you?” 

Medusa blinked. She studied Percy long enough that the other patrons got annoyed by the delay. “I have a break in fifteen minutes. We can talk then.” 

Percy bought a hot chocolate and went to wait at a table. The fifteen minutes seemed both long and short at the same time. He tracked Medusa’s progress through the tables until she came to sit opposite him. 

She had a blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee with her. “If I do not eat on my break, then I have to wait until after my shift,” she explained. Medusa took a bite of her muffin and studied Percy for a long time. She ate without removing her veil or even displacing it. 

Percy fidgeted in his seat. What should he say? Time was running out and Medusa would have to go back to work soon. “Auntie Em, I’m sorry for...for what I did to you five years ago. I don’t expect you to forgive me but…” Percy faltered, losing his train of thought. What was it he really wanted out of this meeting? “But I want to move past that. I don’t want to be the person that I was or do the things that I did. I don’t want any more bloodshed on either side.” 

Medusa drank her coffee and stared at Percy with unblinking eyes. Time ticked away. She ate more of her muffin. After a long pause, Medusa said, “It didn’t used to be like this. There was a time when blood was shed only in the most dire of circumstances, when neither side had a choice.” 

Percy straightened up and listened. 

“But times have changed. Something was done to us by a daughter of the Titaness witch. She cursed all of us, both monsters and demigods. Now, monsters crave the flesh of demigods.” 

“But you didn’t eat anyone. You just turn them to stone.” 

Medusa tilted her head ever so slightly but it was enough to make Percy doubt his surety on this matter. However, she also didn’t refute his claim. 

Percy looked down at his drink. He ran his hands over his thighs, and felt Riptide in his pocket. The pen had been in his pocket for so many years that he didn’t feel it anymore unless it really jabbed him in the hip. He met Medusa’s eyes again. “Is that your way of saying that we can’t move past this?” 

Medusa finished her muffin. She took a long sip of her coffee. Her eyes glanced to the clock hanging on the wall behind the counter. Her break must be over soon. “I miss the old days, Percy. Things were much simpler then. I think that it would be nice to go back to them.” Then she got up and threw away her trash. Medusa went behind the counter and put her apron back on. 

It appeared that their conversation was over.  
  
  
  


That night, Percy mulled over what Medusa had said. He and Luke were in separate beds. This time at Luke’s request. Without Luke within arms reach, Percy had trouble falling asleep and staying that way so he was up thinking. It sounded like Medusa was willing to move on from their past. He didn’t think that they would have any trouble with her. 

Percy was still thinking when he heard movement from Luke’s bed. Luke sat up and rubbed his eyes. He turned his face toward Percy. “Can I sleep with you?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” Percy said and turned down the covers so that Luke could join him. 

Luke moved beds, snuggling down close to Percy without touching him. After a few moments, he asked, “Can I hold your hand?” 

“Okay,” Percy agreed and slid his hand over to Luke. They laced their fingers together. It felt like some tension that Percy had unknowingly been holding vanished. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. I’m alright. Just...reopened an old wound.” Luke swallowed audibly. “It’s been hard to get a grip on myself. It feels like I’ve been… non-stop screaming in my head for the past few days.” 

Percy could relate to that all too well. He could also relate to not wanting to talk about it. Some trauma just cut too deep. If Luke wanted to tell him then he would. In the meantime, Percy would do what he could to support Luke. He squeezed Luke’s hand. “Let me know if I can help.” 

Luke inched forward until their foreheads were pressed together. “You do help. Just being here is helping.” He smiled, the action barely visible in the dim lighting. 

“Are we good?” Percy asked the question that had been secretly burning within him. 

Luke squeezed his hand this time. “Yeah, baby. We’re good.” 

Relief flooded Percy. It was something he’d worried about more than he realized. “Can I kiss you?” Normally he wouldn’t ask, but Luke seemed to need Percy to ask. Percy didn’t want to just take. Not if Luke wasn’t willing to give. Not even just a kiss. 

Luke hesitated. He didn’t exactly pull away but it was a near thing. “Not now. Just give me a few more days. I just…” 

Percy cut him off with a quiet, “It’s okay.” He’d asked so that Luke could say no if he didn’t want it. And Luke had said that they’re good. Percy didn’t think that the denial had anything to do with him. 

There was silence between them. Just the sounds of the heater humming and someone passing in the hallway outside their door. Luke’s hand felt nice in his and his breath tasted like mint toothpaste. 

Luke asked, “Are we good?” His voice was very quiet and held just a hint of worry in it. 

“We’re good, Luke,” Percy assured him. Then he remembered that he had news. “There’s something I wanted to tell you about.” He explained meeting Medusa and how their talk went. 

Luke rolled onto his back, still holding Percy’s hand. He yawned and said, “I think she’ll let us be. And we’re leaving in a few days anyway.” 

That was true. Percy yawned and then closed his eyes. “Good night, Luke,” he mumbled. 

As he was drifting off to sleep, he heard Luke murmur _“Saranghae.”_  
  
  
  


“I might actually miss this park when we’re gone,” Percy said. They were on the swings again after another therapy session. Percy felt pretty good about life at the moment. Yeah, his therapy session was kind of a downer but now he was out and about with Luke. And the therapy _was_ helping. 

Luke looked around. “Yeah. It’s a nice park.” 

“I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much time at a park.” 

“I’ve spent many a day in the park but it has been a hot minute. I used to sleep in the tubes during the winter,” Luke said. He hung from the swing with one hand, letting his other dangle at his side. “This is a good park. The bathrooms don’t ever seem to be locked and I haven’t seen any cops nearby.” 

Percy cocked his head, considering. In his mind, Luke being homeless never translated to Luke sleeping outdoors. Some part of him always assumed that Luke went to a shelter. But would a shelter actually let a homeless kid leave? Percy wasn’t sure. He’d heard some horror stories about shelters and how controlling they could be. Still, the idea of a tiny Luke sleeping in the playground equipment because it was the only shelter he could find really tugged at Percy’s heartstrings. 

“I don’t think I could fit in them anymore,” Luke was still talking. He didn’t sound upset about his past and Percy suspected that he wouldn’t like Percy pitying him. “When I found Thalia we made it one winter together sleeping in the same tube before we both hit growth spurts and got too big. Then we only found places that had two tubes. Except by February of our second year together, I’d grown too tall and didn’t fit anymore so we had to come up with something else.” 

What on earth was Percy supposed to say to that? He ran a hand through his short hair. Luke had cut it this morning before their therapy sessions and now it was back to only two and a half inches long. He finally asked, “Do you miss her?” 

Luke looked surprised. “Thalia?” He shook his head. “I used to but...sometimes people wind up being a smaller part of your life than you think they will be.” 

Percy shifted his weight so that his swing swung sideways. He took Luke’s hand. “And sometimes people wind up being a bigger part of your life than you think they will be.” 

Luke’s smile was so warm. 

Percy was surprised to find that he was a little emotional saying goodbye to Lauren and Joan. “You’re leaving?!” Joan gasped. She flashed her mother an accusing look. 

“Yeah. It’s time that we hit the road again,” Luke said. He had an arm around Percy’ waist. Now that another few days had passed, Luke thawed and was back to his usual affectionate self. It was good to see him happy and comfortable again. 

“Where are you going?” Joan asked. 

“We can’t tell you,” Percy said immediately. Though Medusa had given them no trouble, he didn’t want to give her an opportunity to track them down after they left. If the information somehow got back to the Olympians and their demigods, then Percy and Luke would be in trouble. 

Lauren didn’t look surprised. Based on what Percy and Luke had told her, there was no way she could be. She only smiled at them. “You both have my number. Feel free to call any time. Though I do hope that you’ll settle down and find another therapist. Maybe for longer than a month.” The criticism was delivered gently. 

“We’ll call you if we need you,” Percy promised. 

“And we’ll find another therapist as soon as we get where we’re going,” Luke added. 

“Good luck, boys,” Lauren said. She shook their hands. Her hand was tiny compared to theirs. 

Joan gave them both high fives. “Have a good life, losers.” 

Lauren sighed. “You can’t call people losers when you’re upset, Joan.” 

Percy grinned. “Thanks for all the hot chocolate.” 

To Lauren, Luke said, “Thank you for helping us.” There was so much sincerity in his voice that Percy wondered if they should have gone to therapy before this. He hugged Percy tightly. 

Then it was time to go. Their last therapy sessions with Lauren were complete. A month had passed in the city of Cheyenne and both of them were happy to close this chapter of their trip. Percy slid into the driver's seat. All of their belongings had been packed up into the trunk. 

Luke sat in the passenger seat, eating a pack of fruit snacks and singing between popping the snacks into his mouth. “I’m carrying your love with me / West Virginia down to Tenenesee / I’ll be moving with the good lord's speed / carrying your love with me.” 

Percy did not comment on Luke’s choice of seat. He took it as a good sign, though. “Where to, husband?” Percy asked. 

Luke glanced down at the atlas in his lap. He was reading it for fun, of course, not because he actually needed directions. “I think we should spend the spring in Florida. So that way.” Luke pointed in the direction Percy was to drive. 

“Are we cutting across or going through the South?” Percy asked, curious. He’s gone through the flyover states before but that was on the AMtrak. It would be cool to see what they had to offer when you could actually go at your own pace. 

“We’ll save the South for summer,” Luke decided. He finished his fruit snacks and opened another packet of them. His eyes were on the atlas in his lap. There was some tension in his shoulders but he handled the drive well. Hitting the moose really messed him up but Luke didn’t seem to want to talk to Percy about it. He probably spoke to Lauren about it. 

They passed the Welcome to Nebraska sign. There was less snow on the ground in Nebraska, especially near the highway. It was just a dusting, barely even five inches deep. The landscape was flat, flat, flat. It was broken only by the occasional tree or building but those were distant and looked like toys. 

They drove for about three hours in peace before Percy pulled over into a rest area near Sutherland. There were a few other cars in the parking lot but their occupants seemed otherwise occupied. They should get out and stretch their legs. But there was something that Percy wanted more than to stretch his legs. His blood burned with desire. He turned to Luke, unbuckling his own seatbelt. 

Luke looked up from his atlas and seemed to read something in Percy’s expression because he was reaching for the buckle on his seatbelt too. The atlas fell onto the floor. 

Percy slid across to Luke’s side of the seat. “Luke, can I kiss you?” 

“Yes,” Luke breathed. He cupped Percy’s cheek, already leaning forward and tilting his head. 

Percy and Luke kissed for a long, long time in the car; just like young people in love. Which, of course, they were. After going so long without, kissing Luke was like taking a breath of clean air. And it felt damn good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The moose's name is Sam. _Was_ Sam. 
> 
> Lauren and Joan are a nod to Lauren Shippen, who created the Bright Sessions podcast. Give it a listen. Also, look, listen. I did not want to actually write out the therapy sessions. There are limits to the research I can and will do. Just know that Percy and Luke are going and it's helping.

**Author's Note:**

> Updates will be the 18th of every month.


End file.
